Soham Desai, the former strength and conditioning coach of the Indian men’s team, said that the decision to limit Jasprit Bumrah to three Tests in England was made months ago, before the 2025 Champions Trophy.
After a great show in the first four Tests, Bumrah got injured in the fifth Test of the Australia series in January. He missed the next three months of international cricket, including the Champions Trophy where India won without him.
He came back for the IPL and played every game except the first few. But during the tournament, chief selector Ajit Agarkar confirmed that Bumrah would play only three or four Tests. Head coach Gautam Gambhir, captain Shubman Gill and Bumrah himself confirmed the same before the first Test in Headingley.
Desai told The Times of India that when Bumrah couldn’t play in the Champions Trophy, they studied India’s Future Tours Programme and decided he would play only three Tests in England.
Desai also explained how the team assesses a player’s workload and rest needs. He said there are objective and subjective ways to measure workload. The objective way is to collect data from wearable GPS devices. The subjective way is to watch how the bowler behaves. He said they set benchmarks for each player’s ‘normal’ behavior when they are performing well.
Desai added that if they see a bowler behaving differently or lacking intensity, even in simple things like conversations on the team bus, it raises a flag.
There’s talk about whether Bumrah will play the second Test in Edgbaston since India is down 1-0 in the series. While Indian assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate denied any decision, Desai said plans for specific venues are made well before the series and any changes would happen at least two days before the match starts.
Desai also said Bumrah’s injury in the fifth Test in Sydney was because of his heavy workload in the fourth Test in Melbourne.
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He explained that there’s a set number of overs for Bumrah to bowl per Test and going five to seven overs over that limit is acceptable. But it depends on how those extra overs are bowled. In the previous Test series at the MCG, Bumrah bowled extra overs without enough rest between spells and that increased his workload too much and caused the back injury in Sydney.
