Why Bumrah is not playing today: Why is Jasprit Bumrah not playing today’s 3rd ODI between England and India at Old Trafford?

Why Jasprit Bumrah not playing today: The visiting team has made a lone change to their Playing XI for a series-decider.

During the third ODI of the ongoing India’s tour of England in Manchester, India captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss and chose to bowl for the third time in a row.

“We are gonna bowl first. It looks like a good track and won’t change for the course of 100 overs. It is the series-decider and we have played some good cricket on the tour, we took the learnings from the last game. We bowled well in the limited overs, the T20 series as well. Hopefully, we can restrict them today to a reasonable target,” Sharma told Sky Sports at the toss.

In spite of losing the toss, England captain Jos Buttler got what he wanted. Asked to bat first, Buttler was confident of the pitch being conducive for batting despite the “muggy” conditions at the time of the toss.

“We would have looked to bat. It is a little muggy and there might be some swing early on but will get good for batting as the game progresses. It is great for the series as it is 1-1 coming into this game,” Buttler told Sky Sports at the toss.

Why is Jasprit Bumrah not playing today vs England?

A massive change for the visitors has come in the form of fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah missing this match due to a back spasm. Although not very serious, Sharma spoke against risking someone of Bumrah’s importance.

“Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of this game owing to back spasms. Arshdeep Singh was not considered for selection as he is yet to fully recover from right abdominal strain,” BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) said in a statement uploaded on social media platform Twitter during the toss.

Readers must note that Bumrah is the highest wicket-taker in the series picking eight wickets at an average of 8.92, an economy rate of 3.92 and a strike rate of 13 including career-best bowling figures of 7.2-3-19-6.

Fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, who had played the last of his four ODIs against West Indies at home earlier this year, has replace Bumrah in the Playing XI and will be playing his first ODI in and against England.

England, on the other hand, will continue to play this series without making any changes to their Playing XI.