LONDON: Despite it being ideal conditions for pacers at the Oval, India decided to rest their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for the fifth Test which started here at the Oval on Thursday. On the eve of the contest, captain Shubman Gill raised some hope of Bumrah playing the Test saying any decision on his participation would be taken after having a look at the pitch and weather forecast.
But that was not to be as Bumrah's exclusion came as a big surprise for all and sundry. India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate was asked about the decision after the day's play. "I think it's quite a complex issue around Bumrah, you know, we obviously want to wheel him out, but we also want to respect where his body's at, and on the basis of that, we just felt that it wasn't worth including him in the squad," Ten Doeschate told the journalists in the press conference.
Explaining the reasons behind the decision, the former Dutch all-rounder said, "You know, he has bowled a large number of overs, I know it doesn't always seem like that because he's only played three Tests and he only bowled in one innings in Manchester, but if you look at the loads, he's bowled a lot of overs, and like he did say coming into the tour, he was going to be available for three games, and we just felt it was right to honour that call."
On being questioned how hard it was for the team management to arrive at the decision, Ten Doeschate said, "Yeah, every time I've answered this question I've spoken about like putting the pieces of the puzzles together and guys were baffled when we didn't play him in the second Test, and our thinking yeah was that the Oval, yes it's got bounce but it's normally a fairly good wicket for batting on, and we thought we'd roll the dice and if we'd won the toss we would have bowled. In hindsight you would have loved to have him here, but you would also have said if we come here 3-1 down that we didn't use him there, so it's trying to not guess but trying to look into the future and then see how we can manage him, and maybe England have got it spot on leaving the best bowling wicket for the last test after he's played three."
The assistant coach, however, said it's not fair to say that Bumrah picks and chooses the games. "I don't think picking and choosing is a fair comment to Bumrah, he did say he was going to play three games, he left it up to us which three he played, we've tried to manage the situation, it's not ideal, I guess giving those guys attention, the guys who aren't playing particularly when you're carrying 18 is important, make them know that you're making all the decisions in good faith in the best interest of the team and just on that, all the guys who haven't played, they've been fantastic, they've trained the house down, they're disappointed when they get left out, they don't let it show when they're around the group and that's very important to creating a good culture for the guys who are playing to perform," he signed off.