Published: Feb 05, 2025, 05:22 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 05, 2025, 05:22 PM (IST)
Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri believes that the Men in Blue’s chances of winning the Champions Trophy will go down by 30 per cent if Jasprit Bumrah won’t feature in the tournament.
The pacer is doubtful for the ICC event following the injury that he picked up in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar series held in Sydney. Due to the injury, Bumrah opted not to bowl from Day 2 onwards in the Test.
Despite his injury concerns, Bumrah was named in India’s 15-member squad for the Champions Trophy and is currently under the supervision of the BCCI’s medical staff at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
While announcing the squad for the mega event, chief selector Ajit Agarkar revealed that Bumrah would not be available for the first two ODIs of the series against England.
However, according to the latest update, Bumrah has been removed from the squad altogether which only intensify the doubts over his participation in the Champions Trophy. Ahead of the ICC event, Shastri warned against rushing Bumrah for the tournament and called it a very risky move.
“I think it’s high risk. There’s too much big cricket coming up for India. And at this stage of his [Bumrah’s] career, I think he’s too precious to be just called on for one game out of the blue and asked to deliver. The expectations will be so much. They’ll think that he’ll come in straight away and set the world on fire. It’s never that easy when you come back from injury,” Shastri told ICC.
“Bumrah not fit will reduce India’s chances [of winning the Champions Trophy] by 30%, literally by 30-35%. With a fully fit Bumrah playing, you are guaranteed of those death overs. It would’ve been a different ball game altogether,” Shastri added.
