India skipper Rohit Sharma will hope pace ace Jasprit Bumrah returns to lead the attack in the final two Tests of the upcoming four-match series against world number one Australia. The 29-year-old Burmah, who has not played international cricket since last September due to a back injury, is not part of the Indian squad for the first two Tests but recently returned to bowl at the National Cricket Academy nets, which raised hopes of a comeback in the near future.
“I’m not so sure about Bumrah at the moment. He won’t be available for the first two test matches of course. I expect… I hope, don’t expect him to play the next (last) two test matches (against Australia). We don’t want to take risks with him as back injuries are always critical. There will be a lot of cricket coming back after that too,” Rohit said on Tuesday.
“We are in constant contact with physios and doctors in NCA. We will monitor. The medical team will give him as much time as he wants,” he added.
The India captain spoke at the post-match press conference after leading India to a 3-0 ODI run while visiting New Zealand here.
Bumrah suffered a stress fracture in the lower back following the England tour and missed the Asian Cup last year.
He was expected to make his comeback with the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, but after being included in the squad, the pacer was ruled out.
The test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is also part of the 2022-23 World Test Championship (WTC), will begin in Nagpur on February 9.
The last two Tests will be held in the first two weeks of March.
To boost the team’s chances at the T20 World Cup last October-November, Bumrah was rushed to the T20 side during a home game against Australia where he again collapsed and was ruled out indefinitely.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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