After Sourav Ganguly, former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg urged the Indian team management to use Jasprit Bumrah ‘strategically’ during the upcoming five-match Test series against England, keeping his workload management in mind. There has been a lot of chatter recently regarding ho to use Bumrah against England.
The recent chatter comes after the Indian premier pacer suffered a back injury in the fifth and final Test against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year and sit out of action for close to two months. In fact, he also missed India’s triumphant Champions Trophy campaign.
With just four days to go before the first Test in Headingly, Hogg want Bumrah to play definitely at Edgbaston (second Test) and Lord’s (third Test) and miss the first game if needed. “You’ve got to be very strategic with those three Test matches,” Hogg told RevSportz.
“Where are you going to get the most benefit out of him? Because he can turn the game, he can turn the series on its head. So you want to make sure that you play him at Lord’s, definitely, and probably Warwickshire (Edgbaston).”
“And I don’t know where you’d play him in the other three Test matches, but you want to make sure you play him in those crucial games. I probably wouldn’t even play him in the first Test match, actually,” added the chinaman who played seven Tests, 123 ODIs and 15 T20Is for Australia, before urging India to play some mind games with England.
“I’d just go, ‘Right, England, we don’t have Bumrah.’ And you could just see England thinking, ‘Oh, they don’t have Bumrah – that’s good, we don’t have to face him.’ But then they’re going to start worrying about him in the second Test match. And if he turns the tide in the second match, then all of a sudden England are playing catch-up. So I’d add a bit of by-play there,” stated Hogg.
New era under Shubman Gill, Gautam Gambhir
With the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin retiring from the longest format of the game recently, Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja are two of the most senior players in the side. The England Test series also starts a new era under new captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Although Gambhir and BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar have made it clear that there is no expectations from Gill, the 25-year-old will certainly be under some kind of pressure, leading his country at the top level for the first time in his career. Previously, Gill had captained India against Zimbabwe in a T20I series back in 2024.
