ENG vs IND: AB de Villiers Blasts ‘Mismanagement’ as Gautam Gambhir Locks Bumrah for 3 Tests

India’s pace spearhead, Jasprit Bumrah, is most likely to miss the second Test against England in Birmingham. Without confirming whether the world’s best fast bowler would warm the bench in at Edgbaston, head coach Gautam Gambhir took away the element of surprise by confirming that Bumrah would not play more than three games in the ongoing five-Test series.

Having already featured in the series opener in Leeds, the 31-year-old will participate in only two more Tests on this tour, meaning the tourists will be without his services in the remaining 50 per cent of the tour.

Having seen Bumrah’s body break down under extensive workload on the Australia tour, keeping him away from action for over three months, Gambhir doesn’t want his best fast bowler to endure the same fate yet again. Hence, the apprehension.

Bumrah is too precious a player to be out of action for months at a stretch, which explains Gambhir and the team management’s overtly cautious approach.

However, not all cricket experts are in favour of the way the Gambhir-led management is handling this situation. Former South Africa great AB de Villiers is calling it utter mismanagement as he firmly believes there were other ways to manage Bumrah’s workload.

“He is probably the top bowler in the world in all formats right now. So, it's very difficult to decide a way to rest him,” de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

“But in my opinion, Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game. And this Test series probably would've been the one, in my opinion, to get him ready for all five Test matches,” he added.

The Proteas legend, who managed the workload of one of the modern fast-bowling greats, Dale Steyn, explained that they used to rest him from inconsequential bilateral T20I and ODI series, allowing his body to recuperate fully for big Test series against Australia, England, India, and New Zealand.

“That's what we used to do with Dale (Steyn). Rest him in lesser important T20 and ODI series and get him ready for the big Test series against Australia, England, and India away from home... New Zealand to a certain extent, depending on the rankings at that time,” he elaborated.

“So, I don't know if it was mismanagement or perhaps because he recently got back from injury, sort of saw the IPL as the warmup phase,” he opined.

“Maybe, went to the surgeon, who let him know, ‘You can't play the five Test matches.’ So, I mean you got to respect that, and at the end of the day, it's up to Team India to sort of manage him well. It doesn't get bigger than that, guys, except for maybe the WTC final,” he speculated.

The second Test begins on July 2 at Edgbaston in Birmingham.