Former India batter Manoj Tiwary minced no words as he criticised Jasprit Bumrah for not playing all five Tests against England. Ever since the conclusion of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the 31-year-old No.1-ranked Test bowler has been slammed for not being available for the entirety of the series in the UK. Bumrah featured in three Tests, taking 17 wickets with two five-wicket hauls.
However, the chatter around the speedster grew following the conclusion of the series.
Mohammed Siraj bowled more than 185 overs, finishing as the leading wicket-taker across the two teams with 23 wickets to his name. Looking at his performance, several pundits raised questions about Bumrah and why he couldn’t have played all five matches.
Bumrah was also released from India’s squad on Day 2 of the Oval Test. His participation in just three Tests was known beforehand, and there was no surprise element to this.
Tiwary believes that a player once picked should be available for all the games, and there shouldn’t be a case of picking and choosing.
Jasprit Bumrah told he’s ‘not bigger than the game of cricket’: ‘If a player is not fit for all five Tests…’
“See, when you know there are a couple of things which has happened in England which I thought we missed a trick as far as our strategy is concerned. So first of all, in my opinion, if a player is not fit for a five-Test series, when you know beforehand, then obviously, you will not pick that individual,” Tiwary told CrickTracker.
“Why will you not pick that individual? Because no one is bigger than the game of cricket. And it should be told to everyone, irrespective of whether he’s Jasprit Bumrah, whether it is Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, or anyone in this world. No one is bigger than the game of cricket,” he added.
Bumrah’s back spasms
It must be stated that Bumrah played all five Tests against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, he sustained a back spasm in the decider in Sydney, leading him to be ruled out of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy.
This forced the selectors and management to take the call of having Bumrah feature in just three Tests. However, Tiwary believes that if a player is unavailable for all the games, then he should not be picked in the main squad, no matter how big of a name he is.
“If the team management knows or the selector knows that he’s not going to survive for five Tests on a trot, he should not be picked. And the second reason is we would have understood if the backup was not there, the bench strength was not there, then obviously you want to take Jasprit Bumrah because you know there is no other bowlers who are ready to take over international cricket,” said Tiwary.
“But when you know you have a bench strength, when you have a pool of fast bowlers who are really doing well, then obviously he should not have been picked in the first place,” he added.
Tiwary also criticised head coach Gautam Gambhir and the rest of the management for telling England well in advance about Bumrah and his status.
“So that’s my take. And also, before the series, it was told in the media that he’s going to only play three Tests. Tell me one thing, why would you want to give your insights to the opposition leader or opposition team? So England knew that Bumrah is going to play only three games,” said Tiwary.
“So they prepared and they got more confident, although they lost out on winning the series by their own mistakes, but why would you tell them beforehand? Those are the things which I think was missed by selectors and Team India as well,” he added.