Indian captain Rohit Sharma clarifies on Jasprit Bumrah’s injury scare and removal from the squad for the Sri Lanka ODI series

Indian star pacer Jaspirt Bumrah who was supposed to return to action in the Sri Lanka One Day series has pulled out of the series after he faced some stiffness near his back. Indian captain Rohit Sharma suggested that they are not going to rush Bumrah back into action and his opinion on his body will be given preference.

However Rohit Sharma explained how it is not a big injury scare but they need Bumrah to regain that physical fitness before donning the Indian blue again. Mainly considering the fact that he recently returned from the back injury which forced him to miss the T20 World Cup in Australia.

He was not the part of the ODI squad that would feature against Sri Lanka but later he was added but following his physical issues around back stiffness, he was removed from the squad again as a precautionary measure. The BCCI now do not want to take any risk with the pacer as a little mistake here may harm his career or may force him to stay out of the upcoming 50 over World Cup later this year.

India will kickstart the ODI series against Sri Lanka at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati, Assam. The hosts have won the T20I series and players from that team will bring forward a lot of confidence to this format where even the big boys have joined the team as every ODI from here is considered a preparation for the upcoming World Cup.

However, right before the first match of the series, Rohit Sharma clarified the team’s stance on Jasprit Bumrah at the pre-match press conference. He said, “Very unfortunate incident with him. Poor guy has been working really hard at the NCA all this time. Just when he got back, he had full fitness, he started bowling and everything. Last two days, he felt a little bit of stiffness in his back. It is nothing major, and when Bumrah says anything, we have to be very cautious about it and that is what we did.”

Rohit felt that his Mumbai Indians teammate was bowling on the nets and got his workload sorted and was looking better until he complained of back stiffness. However the Indian captain clarified how Bumrah needs to be at the peak of his powers to return to action again because they have already lost him at the last World Cup and cannot afford to do the same again.

“I thought it was important for us to make that decision to pull him out because when we named him, he was in the process of getting his workload done, he was bowling in the nets. We need to be very careful with him. He had a major injury before the World Cup, so we have to be careful,” he added.

The Indian team will be playing a considerable number of One Day matches at home as a preparation for the upcoming World Cup which will be held in India. So Rohit Sharma feels that it will be great for the players to be accustomed with the conditions and get themselves in tune ahead of the big event.

After the Sri Lanka series, India will welcome New Zealand followed by Australia and will play three ODIs each with both of them. So they will get a nine ODIs at home before the World Cup and Rohit Sharma is very happy with how the things are planned as he does not want too much chopping and changing and has pledged stability for the players who are picked in the starting eleven.

“It’s a good opportunity to play nine home games. We can try out quite a few things keeping the World Cup in mind. We want to give players stability. Making changes after one-two games makes things difficult for players. We don’t want that fear of getting dropped after a couple of poor performances to come into players,” the Indian captain concluded.