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New Delhi: India's assistant coach Ryan ren Doeschate has provided the insights as to why they took the decision to leave their star pacer out of the fifth and final Test of the series against England.
The visitors stick to the earlier plan of playing their best bowler for just three matches across the crucial ICC World Test Championship series.
According to Ten Doeschate, the management weighed multiple factors before setting on their pace attack for the series decider. “It’s quite a complex issue around Bumrah,” he said. “We obviously want to wheel him in but we also want to respect where his body’s at. On that basis, we felt it wasn’t worth including him.”
So far Bumrah has featured in three Test at Headingley, Lord's and Old Trafford, skipping Edgbaston and now the Oval. Though it may not look like a heavy workload on paper, ten Doeschate stressed that the overs he bowled particularly in taxing spells were substantial enough to warrant caution.
The greenish surface at the Oval made the omission even harder to justify especially given the opportunity to wrap up the series in style but Men in Blue had to think beyond one game. As explained by the assistant coach, “It’s about putting puzzle pieces together. We rolled the dice by playing him in Manchester instead. In hindsight, you’d love to have him now, but if we were 3-1 down, people would be questioning why we didn’t use him earlier.”
Bumrah had the final decision on which three matches to play to the team management, who tried to map out the best plan and strategy while considering the physical limits, especially post back surgery.
Despite Bumrah’s absence, India put up a fighting effort on day one as Karun Nair who has been shuffled around the batting order all series, stood tall with an unbeaten half-century. His calm presence at the crease came as a relief on a rain-affected day where England’s seamers kept things tight.
“Karun has done a tough job. He started at No.6, then moved to No.3, and has handled the pressure well,” ten Doeschate added. “He’s given himself a chance now to get a meaningful score.”
The Bumrah call might sting in the short term but for India preserving their strike bowler for bigger battles ahead clearly took precedence.
