Melbourne: Jasprit Bumrah’s career is far important than this T20 World Cup, India captain Rohit Sharma said at the pre-tournament press conference here on Saturday.
Bumrah’s troublesome back injury has ruled him out of the T20 World Cup in Australia, and is likely to keep him out of action for another six weeks.
The BCCI has named Mohammed Shami as Bumrah’s replacement in T20 World Cup squad.
“We spoke to a lot of the specialists about his injuries, but we did not get a decent response,” Rohit said. “This World Cup is important, but his career is more important. He is only 27-28, there is a lot of cricket in front of him.
“So, we can’t take such a risk. All the specialists we spoke to were of the same opinion. There is a lot of cricket ahead of him, he will play a lot more and help India win matches. There is no doubt that he will be missed.”
Shami, who last played a T20I in the 2021 T20 World Cup, is coming off a prolonged bout of Covid-19. He’s had to pull out of matches, made to go through a series of cardiovascular fitness tests, and is finally set to board the plane to Australia.
“Shami was down with Covid-19 two-three weeks back, he was at home, in his farm,” Rohit said. “He was then called over to the National Cricket Academy, he went there and worked quite hard over the last 10 days. His recovery after Covid was very good. He had three to four bowling sessions. All in all, everything is good as far as Shami is concerned,” he said.
The Indian team has wrapped up their week-long camp in Perth where they played in two warm-up games against a Western Australia XI. Team has now moves to Brisbane, where the men in blue are slated to have a training session on Sunday, followed by two warm-ups, against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19.
“We have our practice session in Brisbane tomorrow. He (Shami) will practice with the team. Whatever we have heard about Shami so far, is very positive. Injuries are part and parcel of the sport, there is nothing much that can be done about it. When you play so many games, injuries are bound to happen. Our focus in this last year was that we should build our bench strength.
“When it comes to injuries, we have done a lot with regard to player management in the last one year, but these things happen, and there is not much you can do about it. Our focus in the last year was to get the players in the queue ready, and give them opportunities.
“We know injuries can happen anytime, so our constant focus was to give the players in the waiting enough games and back them. The bowlers that have come to the World Cup, they have played a lot of matches. And this was our focus. I think we have received success.”
After the final warm-up game against Australia at The Gabba in Brisbane on Monday, Team India will fly to Melbourne to take on Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener at the MCG on October 23.
