Why Jasprit Bumrah is not playing Asia Cup 2022: The senior Indian fast bowler isn’t part of a strong 15-member squad.
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Premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is not part of India’s 15-member Asia Cup 2022 squad leaving the team with a three-man pace attack comprising of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan.
Pacer Deepak Chahar, who has regained fitness after missing competitive cricket for almost six months, has been named among three standbys for the tournament.
Bumrah’s absence means that India won’t be playing the Asia Cup with their ideal squad. With India scheduled to host Australia and South Africa for white-ball series before ICC T20 World Cup 2022, the team management would be hoping for Bumrah to return to action before the world event.
Why Jasprit Bumrah is not playing Asia Cup 2022?
It was an hour or so before the announcement of official squad that news around Bumrah suffering a back injury has begin to do the rounds in the Indian media.
Rested for the tour of West Indies, Bumrah had last played for India during the tour of England last month. With him experiencing back spams during his rest period, Bumrah has been ruled out of action for an indefinite period of time.
“Jasprit Bumrah has a back injury and will not play in the Asia Cup. He is our main bowler and we would like him to be back in action before T20 World Cup. We can’t risk him in the Asia Cup as the injury could aggravate,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
The only two instances of Bumrah playing international cricket in the UAE have been Asia Cup 2018 and ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
In addition to Bumrah, fellow fast bowler Harshal Patel has also missed out on selection due to a rib injury. Patel, 31, was part of the Indian squad for West Indies tour but didn’t get to play a match due to injury before getting ruled out of the last two matches.
