The talismanic pace spearhead’s quality is still “exceptional and unbelievable,” according to batting great Sachin Tendulkar, who believes that India’s two Test victories against England without Jasprit Bumrah were merely a “coincidence.”
Bumrah played in three of the recently finished five-Test series, where an inexperienced India managed to salvage a respectable 2-2 draw. Bumrah did not play in India’s two victories because of a predetermined workload management strategy.
Tendulkar claimed that India’s victories at Birmingham and The Oval without Bumrah were purely coincidental. He continued by highlighting Bumrah’s accomplishments in the three Test matches he participated in, when he claimed a total of 14 wickets.
“Bumrah started off really well, got five wickets in the (first innings of the) first Test. He did not play the second Test, but (played in) the third and the fourth. Again, in (one of) those two Tests, he got (a) five wickets (haul),” Tendulkar said in his video analysis of the series on ‘Reddit’.
“Of three Test that he played, he picked up five wickets twice. I know that people are discussing a number of things, that we won those Tests in which he did not play. To me, that is just a coincidence.
“The quality of Bumrah is exceptional. What he has been able to do is just unbelievable so far. He has been a consistent performer without any doubt (and) I would put him right at the top with anyone else,” he added.
In Bumrah’s absence, Mohammed Siraj played in all five games and bowled a total of 185.3 overs, bringing his A game to the table and taking 23 wickets.
With 219 wickets in 48 Test matches compared to Siraj’s 123 in 41, Bumrah still leads by a significant margin in terms of figures.
Though the team management made it apparent that the top bowler could not have been risked, Bumrah’s scheduled absence from the crucial fifth and final Test did raise some concerns about how his workload was being handled.
