India's decision to leave their best bowler Jasprit Bumrah for the ongoing second Test against England in Edgbaston has raised lot of eyebrows. A lot of experts openly criticized the decision, stating that the speedster should have played the game as there was a seven-day gap between first and the second Test. Lot of experts like Dale Styen, Ravi Shastri, and Sunil Gavaskar have failed to understand the logic of resting Bumrah for the second Test despite the visitors trailing 1-0 in the five-match Test series. Kumar Sangakkara has also joined the bandwagon of agreeing with other experts of resting the premier pacer for the second Test.
For the unversed, it was pre-decided that the speedster will only feature in three Tests, owing to workload issues. However with India suffering a big setback in the first Test, the former Sri Lankan stated that Bumrah was must have inclusion in the second Test.
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“Interesting to understand how the decision is being made and who makes it? Is it after a consultation with the players or the physios? It depends on whether the Lord’s Test is more important than the series? The series is on the line. If we see the score, it’s an even day, perhaps a little bit more tilted towards England with the five wickets down. So I would have expected the coach to have gone to Bumrah and say ‘Yes, we thought you might play the 3rd and the 5th Test, but we’re going 1 and 2. Take a look if you can play the third if you can, because then you’ve got two weeks off before the next one,” he said on Sky Sports.
Also Read: "I Am Surprised": Ganguly criticizes team India’s spin attack for the IND vs ENG 2nd Test
There is a little bit of baggage: Sangakkara
Sangakkara further stated that Gambhir is carrying a huge baggage as he has managed only one Test victory in the nine Tests he has been as the coach of the team since taking over from Rahul Dravid last year. The expert also feels constant chopping and changing is not helping the cause either. For the unversed, India made three changes for the second Test as they bought Akash Deep, Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar in place of Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Sudarshan respectively.
“It’s not just a reaction to the last Test. I think there is a bit of chat about the last 9-10. Seven losses, one win, one draw. There is a little bit of baggage as well to turn that pattern around. So there was a lot of pressure and they were looking at this game and thinking ‘alright, what can we do?’ and they ring in all the changes," added Sangakkara
