The injury troubles of Jasprit Bumrah significantly reduced India’s chances of clinching two titles in 2022. He had been disqualified from the Asia Cup out of caution for the T20 World Cup later in the year, but he ended up hurting himself before the main event. India didn’t get to the final match in either competition. In the T20 World Cup semifinals, Rohit Sharma’s team was eliminated after losing to England by 10 wickets.
Bumrah’s back injury, which he suffered before the T20 World Cup, has prohibited him from playing since September of last year. He was supposed to return during India’s ODI series against Sri Lanka, but he was eventually injured again and had to leave the team at the last minute. Bumrah has left off the team for the first two Test matches against Australia, but skipper Rohit Sharma is optimistic that he will be able to make the team for the remaining games in the series.
According to legendary Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson, Bumrah may have to decide between limited-overs cricket and Test matches. He noted that because players today must play all year long across several formats, unlike when he was in his prime, he understands why fast bowlers, in particular, need to take breaks.
While talking to Revsportz, Thomson said, “There is so much cricket. They play all year round. We didn’t do that. We used to play seasons, the summer season. Occasionally we would go to England for our winter. It was a long tour, four and a half months. But generally, we just played in the summer so we would gradually build up after Christmas. Because I knew I was going to get some rest.”
He further added, “Now, you can’t do that. So you have to pace yourself to be around. That’s why they have all those backup bowlers and the rest of the people. In our day we didn’t rest. If we had a rest someone else would take our spot. It is a matter of having to rest these days because it is a 12-month-a-year job.”
Thomson feels that the shorter format of the game will give him more money with a long extension in his career.
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The former Australian bowler said, “Well, (Bumrah) has to work out what he wants to play, short formats or Test matches or both. If I think about if I was playing now, it would be very hard for me to play Test matches. Especially, when you get so much money in the short version of the game which just makes your longevity better. We didn’t have to think about money in our days because there was no money. Now it’s a huge business. The only one who is going to look after you is yourself. So, you got to work out how long I am going to play for and how am I going to manage that because no one else is going to. I think you have to be more cunning these days in terms of workload and watch what you got to play. If you are good enough, they are going to pick you anyway so you should be able to pull the strings.”
