Cricket | ‘Jasprit Bumrah should’ve been told to miss the IPL’: Dilip Vengsarkar defends pacer against workload critics | Cricket News
MUMBAI: Wading into the debate around Jasprit Bumrah’s workload management, which saw him play just three out of five Tests in England, former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar asserted that India’s ace pacer should have been told by the decision-makers in Indian cricket to miss IPL 2025 as it would have kept him refreshed and well-rested for the important five-Test series between India and England this summer, which ended in a 2-2 stalemate.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Considering the importance of the India versus England Test series and his fragile back, Bumrah should have been told by the BCCI, selectors, and the Indian team management to miss IPL 2025. It was very important that we had a fully fit and refreshed Bumrah for such an iconic series. If I was the India chief selector, I would have convinced Mukesh Ambani (Mumbai Indians owner) and Bumrah that it was important for Bumrah to miss the IPL for the England series, or play a lesser number of matches in the IPL. I’m sure that they would have agreed to do so.
“Who remembers the runs and wickets taken in the IPL? However, people will remember Mohammed Siraj’s lion-hearted performance in this series (23 wickets in five Tests), Shubman Gill (754 runs in five Tests), KL Rahul (532), Yashasvi Jaiswal (411 runs), and Rishabh Pant’s (479) sublime batting, and Washington Sundar’s superb allround performance (284 runs & seven wickets in four Tests). A series like this one takes place probably once in four years. I believe India are not playing a five-Test series till Jan 2027 (against Australia). It was a series for the ages and I wish Bumrah was available for almost all the Tests. We could have won the series,” Vengsarkar told TOI on Sunday.Returning from a back injury which forced him to miss the 2025 Champions Trophy in UAE, Bumrah played in 12 matches in IPL 2025 for MI, bowling 47.2 overs in which he took 18 wickets. The 31-year-old took 14 wickets in three Tests at 26.00 in the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy and was under fire for missing the second and fifth Tests of the series at Edgbaston and Oval respectively due to workload management.However, Vengsarkar doesn’t agree with Bumrah’s critics who feel that he shouldn’t miss Tests because of workload management issues.“You can’t blame Bumrah for missing matches. We must remember that he underwent back surgery and we must be cautious. You can’t question his commitment,” he felt.‘Would have asked Kohli to play the Eng series and then quit’Meanwhile, Vengsarkar also felt that former India captain Virat Kohli, who quit Tests just before the England tour, should have been asked to play in the series. “If I was the chief selector, I would have persuaded Virat to retire after playing the England series. We needed his class and experience in England,” he said.
