Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, who was bowling coach with the Mumbai-based squad in the cash-rich Indian Premier League, worked closely with Jasprit Bumrah and now wishes the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to cleverly handle Bumrah’s workload. Bond, whose own career was also slowed by several back injuries, says a back injury for Bumrah in the same area as the 2023 surgery “could be a career-ender. “
Since then bumrah has been sidelined after suffering an injury setback during the second day of the fifth India-Australia Test in Sydney earlier this year. Originally named to India’s Champions Trophy 2025 team, he was eventually replaced by Harshit Rana on account of a lower back injury. Rehabbing at the BCCI’s Bengaluru Centre of Excellence, he is now under way and there is no formal information on his return to professional cricket.
ESPNcricinfo quoted Bond as saying regarding his scans in Sydney: “He was showing signs of sprains and such; when he went off for scans, it was at Sydney.” I feared it is not a sprain; it could be some sort of bony injury around that area (the back). If it was, I figured he might have some trouble getting the Champions Trophy.
Booms (Bumrah) will be all right, I believe; it’s just (workload) management (thing). Where are the danger times then, honestly, where are the chances to provide him a break? And usually, he said, there will be a risk in the transition from IPL to the Test Championship . recalling the tours and the calendar ahead, where are the chances to give him a break? And rather, where are the danger times? And quite often it is will be a risk in (transition from) IPL to the Test Championship,” he added .
Overuse of Bumrah can result in another injury, which might also end his career, therefore Bond doesn’t want him to play more than two Test matches in a row.
He is too important for the following World Cup and everything. You would have five tests in England; I’d not want to play him in more than two consecutives. Going from the back end of the IPL into a Test game will be a substantial gamble. And so crucial will be their coping with that.
They might remark, “Look, it’s four Test matches all together.” Or four. Should he be in good shape after the English summer, we can fairly certainly hope we will be able to support him through the other formats. That makes things tough since he is your top bowler, but if he got another injury in the same place that could be a career ender—possibly, Bond said. I’m not sure you can have surgery in that place again.
