Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s assistant coach, said England scheduled the fifth Test on the “best bowling wicket” of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy only after Jasprit Bumrah had played his three games. Bumrah had declared before the series that he would play only three Tests, the first, third and fourth and rest in the second which India won. Ten Doeschate compared the situation to piecing together a puzzle, balancing India’s need to win matches with the risk of long term injury, similar to what happened after their tour of Australia.
“Whenever I answer this, I talk about putting the pieces together. People were confused when we didn’t play him in the third Test. We thought the Oval was bouncy but good for batting. We decided to take a chance and if we had won the toss we would have bowled,” said the assistant coach after Day 1 at the Oval.
“Looking back it would have been great to have him here but if we had come here 3-1 down we would have regretted not using him earlier. We’re trying to plan ahead and figure out how to manage him. Maybe England has it right by saving the best bowling wicket for the last Test after he’s played three,” he added.
India batted first and ended the day at 204/6 on the greenish pitch. England is also without their top pacers, Ben Stokes is injured and Jofra Archer is resting for the same reason as Bumrah. Chris Woakes also injured his shoulder on Thursday.
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Ten Doeschate dismissed the idea that Bumrah was “picking and choosing” matches, saying that Indian players are always disappointed when they can’t play but encourage each other.
“He has bowled many overs even if it doesn’t seem like it because he only played three Tests and bowled in one innings in Manchester. But if you look at the workload he’s bowled a lot. He said before the tour that he’d be available for three games and we felt it was right to stick to that,” he said. “He’s not picking and choosing. He said he’d play three games and left it to us which ones. We’ve tried to manage the situation which isn’t ideal. We need to look after the guys who aren’t playing especially when you have 18 players,” he said.
