Jasprit Bumrah has revealed why he turned down the opportunity to be India’s Test captain. He said he wanted to keep things stable for the team rather than chase personal goals. Bumrah felt having a steady leadership was important for the team’s success especially with the Test team going through changes with some senior players retiring.
For instance R Ashwin retired during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired last month. With Rohit’s retirement there was an opening for captain just before the five Test series against England. The BCCI decided to pick Shubman Gill as the captain with chief selector Ajit Agarkar saying he’s a good long term choice.
Bumrah said, Yes the BCCI was looking at me for leadership but I had to decline because I thought it wouldn’t be fair to the team. In a five Test series having different players lead some matches just isn’t right. I wanted to put the team first. He also said he had told the BCCI he wasn’t interested in a leadership role since he wouldn’t be able to play all the matches.
Bumrah clarified there was no controversy around his decision saying, “There’s no big story behind it. I wasn’t sacked or anything like that.” Before Rohit and Virat retired he had talked to the BCCI about managing his workload, his support team and his surgeon and decided it was better to take a smarter approach to his fitness.
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He said, During the IPL I brought up my workloads with the BCCI. I discussed it with my medical team to ensure I manage my back and stay smart about how I play. Bumrah admitted while captaincy was important to him and he had worked hard for it, he felt it was better for him to focus on being an effective player for the Indian team.
India will play the five Test series against England as part of the 2025-27 ICC World Test Championship cycle from June 20 to August 4 in various venues including Leeds, Birmingham, London and Manchester.
