Important for Bumrah to get game time: Shreyas

For a few years now, the workload management of Jasprit Bumrah has entailed the selectors preserving him in the white-ball format where there is no World Cup around the corner. It was why Bumrah’s appearance in the ODIs against England in July was his first in the 50-over format since the 2023 World Cup final.

At a time when the priority is next year’s ODI World Cup, India has veered away from that approach by picking Bumrah for three T20Is against Afghanistan and the Asian Games. Skipper Shreyas Iyer said on Saturday that the idea was to give the spearhead, who is returning from a knee injury suffered during the England series, as much game time as possible at this stage.

“Since he is coming out of an injury, it’s important he gets game time. You need that sort of confidence when you’re coming into the game. He’s immensely experienced, but if you ask me, I would want more game time and more confidence leading up to a certain tournament. I interacted with him, and he’s in that mindset where he wants to perform for the team and see to it that we win championships,” Shreyas told the media on the eve of the first T20I against Afghanistan.

Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar are also finding their way back after injury, a familiar theme of late that has placed the spotlight on the BCCI’s medical staff. Shreyas, no stranger to injury-related setbacks, empathised with the players concerned.

“I feel it’s not frustrating. It is because players are putting in efforts for the team, and if that effort turns out to be on the negative side, you can’t control it,” Shreyas reasoned.

There was another injury scare in the nets on Friday when Ishan Kishan appeared to sprain his back during his batting stint. However, Shreyas allayed any concerns.

“Ishan is comfortable at the moment,” he said. “I interacted with him after the practice session. It was just a niggle”.