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The way it stands right now, even as the visiting team India are batting carefully and steadily in the Edgbaston Test, which is already underway, it doesn't appear that the team has made the right selection call where this brand new Test match is concerned. Surely, India tried all they could with the bat and were found wanting in terms of the overall brand of cricket they played in the series opener that was played nearly a week ago at Headingley's Leeds. The result? The hosts, England hopped on to a relatively easy-looking win. Back in that Test match, it did seem especially given the way India bowled in the fourth innings that the visitors were a bowler short and most importantly, the in-form Jasprit Bumrah could still have been conteded with in the next game, given he picked a fifer at Leeds.
At Edgbaston, a venue where historically speaking, India already have a poor record having lost 7 of their previous 8 Tests here, Jasprit Bumrah has been rested with the clear idea of having the great fast bowler returning to the playing XI in the next, i.e., the 3rd Test match. This move, clearly, hasn't pleased the great legend Sir Gavaskar who exclaimed, "Kuldeep isn't picked and Bumrah is saved just to play him at Lord's. This management's decisions are baffling."
You had 7 days rest and you still didn't play Bumrah: Ravi Shastri
Apparently former national coach of the men's team, Ravi Shastri too, has expressed his disconsolation with the move, saying, "You had 7 days rest and you still dind't play Bumrah when you are 1-0 down. I can't believe that!"
"It should be the captain and the coaching staff that should decide who should be playing, and if this is an important game in the context of the series, he should be playing this game more than anything else. Lords can come later. You know this is the important game where you've got to counter punch almost straight away," Shastri said.
