Former Indian National Cricket Team opening batsman Aakash Chopra opined that pacer Jasprit Bumrah should be given a chance to decide whether he needs to rest for the second Test against the New Zealand National Cricket Team.

India and New Zealand will lock horns in the second Test of the three-match series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune starting Wednesday, October 23.

Gautam Gambhir says workload management depends on match outcome

In the pre-match press conference, India head coach Gautam Gambhir indirectly confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah will take part in the second Test against the Kiwis.

He further said that they will monitor Jasprit Bumrah along with other pacers after the match in Pune to see what his situation is right now.

Gambhir, for his part, was as always very forceful with his statement, as he stated that the result of the Pune test will have an impact on workload management, hinting that they would seek to continue with the same pacemakers, if the result does not appear. your favor.

Jasprit Bumrah has so far played all three home Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand and after the conclusion of the ongoing series, he will travel to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, where the team management would expect him to play the five. matches.

I think the choice should be left in your hands – Aakash Chopra

In a recent interaction with India Today as a JioCinema pundit, Aakash Chopra said that Jasprit Bumrah should play the second Test if he is completely fine and there is no point in resting him. According to Aakash Chopra, the Indian team management should leave the decision of whether to play or not in the hands of Jasprit Bumrah.

“There is still a lot of time for the Australia Test. This Test (against New Zealand) will end on November 5 and they will play 4 T20Is which he will not play. It’s not like we are playing a Test every week. I think the choice should be left to them. hands, if he feels 100% and wants to play, there is no point in telling him not to because of certain injury management protocols,” Aakash Chopra said.

“All said and done, since we saw this workload management issue arise, it’s not like bowlers haven’t been injured as often… so I’d leave it to Bumrah. It would have been different if it was someone else, but with Bumrah, it should be left to him,” Aakash Chopra added.

This Indian team has followed a philosophy that… – Aakash Chopra

Another big headache for India ahead of the second Test would be choosing a batsman between Sarfaraz Khan and KL Rahul. Notably, Sarfaraz Khan played an impressive knock of 150 runs in the Bengaluru Test, while KL Rahul completely failed. With Shubman Gill returning for the Pune Test, only one between Sarfaraz and Rahul can feature in the match.

In a video shared on his official YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra spoke about this matter and said:

“This Indian team has followed the philosophy that if the originally chosen player is fit and available, he will return and whoever has played in his place will come out. Secondly, when there was a question before the first Test as to who would go at No. 3, the captain and the coach said that they were very comfortable playing with Rahul at six and did not want to move him.

“It seems like they were thinking that it is an improvisation. Now that Sarfaraz scored a century and Rahul failed in both the innings, a big question arose. I was looking at KL Rahul’s numbers. The numbers are not that good. An average “33 in 53 matches is no big deal.”