India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Hardik Pandya were left out of the squads to tour England and Ireland by the national selection panel on Saturday, a clear sign that the wise men are primarily saving their services for Tests and ODIs, respectively, in the upcoming season.
After playing in multiple T20 matches since late last year, including a successful World Cup campaign, Bumrah and Pandya were a shadow of themselves in the most recent IPL 2026 for the Mumbai Indians, necessitating careful management of the pair.
Bumrah will play again during the Asian Games, which take place from September 17 to October 3. However, chief selector Ajit Agarkar stated that the pacer will be utilized more in lengthier formats.
“Yeah, and also one-day World Cup, like T20 (format) was in the last World Cup…we know how important he is,” Agarkar replied when he was asked if Bumrah was being preserved for Test assignments.
“The WTC cycle…we’ve still got a chance to (qualify for the final) if we play well enough over these next nine Tests, if we can have Jasprit play majority of those games and still keep him fit and healthy, it’s always a (great) thing,” he added.
In order to qualify for the final of the 2025–2027 World Test Championship cycle, India will play a five-match series at home against Australia after touring Sri Lanka and New Zealand for two Tests apiece.
The Shubman Gill-led team is now in sixth place in the standings, behind Bangladesh. To turn around the campaign, Bumrah will need to play at his best.
“… there’s a lot of T20 cricket, you can always bring him back. (In the) Asian Games, he will be there. The main aim is to try and keep him fit for the Test and the one-dayers,” Agarkar said.
The former India pacer stated that he would like to see the squad perform better but that “worry” is not the appropriate word for India’s current standing in the WTC table.
“I don’t know whether worry is the right word. I think (the) England (tour) was good and the South African series probably didn’t go to plan. But, we still have a chance (to reach the final) if we play well enough and we know we’ve got the players but, we’ve got to play better,” he said.
Pandya’s prospects of making a comeback to the T20 establishment appear less likely than Bumrah’s, as Agarkar stated that he will be utilized more in the 50-over format.
“He is a part of the one-day squad right now in (the) Afghanistan (series). Like Bumrah, if we can get him playing well and keep him fit for one-day cricket — I don’t think he’s played one-day cricket for a while — that is, at this point, the main objective,” said Agarkar.
“We can always bring him back. It also gives us an opportunity to give someone like Nitish Reddy a few opportunities with T20 cricket. So, there will be a little bit of rest and rotation with regards to T20 (in Pandya’s case),” he said.
Agarkar claimed that Pandya, whose last ODI outing came in the Champions Trophy last year, is still a valuable asset in the one-day format. “But, the main objective is to see if he (Pandya) can start playing well and stay healthy with 50-over cricket with the World Cup in a year and a half, around that sort of time. It gives us a lot of balance,” Agarkar said.
“The World Cup is in South Africa, if he is bowling well enough. We’ll assess how we go in the next few months, that’s primarily the reason at this point,” he added.
