Reports: Jasprit Bumrah has stress reaction not stress fracture, can recover within four to six weeks

Jasprit Bumrah’s injury has caused concern not just to the Indian national team, but also to cricket fans all around the world. When there had been reports of the star pacer being ruled out of the upcoming T20 World Cup, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid opened up on the matter and said that Bumrah has been under observation and has not been ruled out.

India already faced a major setback ahead of the marquee event, as all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was ruled out due to his injury. And now, reports suggest that Bumrah has a ‘stress reaction’ and not a ‘stress fracture’, which basically implies that the injury is not as worse as it seems to be. A player can recover from a stress reaction within a few weeks.

A senior BCCI official informed The Times of India about the developments, which basically means that Bumrah can recover within 4-6 weeks, the usual recovery period for a stress reaction, rather than the 4-6 month period which is required to heal from a stress fracture.

“Scans by the BCCI medical team at the National Cricket Academy (in Bangalore) have revealed that it's not a stress fracture, but 'stress reaction', which is one step less than a stress fracture. It takes 4-6 months to recover from a stress fracture, but normally only about 4-6 weeks to recover from a stress reaction,” said the BCCI source.

Bumrah's inclusion to be decided by October 15

In the ongoing T20I series against South Africa, Mohammed Siraj has replaced Bumrah for the remaining two games after the latter missed the first game owing to an injury. The Indian T20I team will fly to Australia on October 5, after finishing their series against South Africa, but there has not been any confirmation of Bumrah’s schedule. However, Bumrah can still be included in the squad as per tournament regulations and the deadline for doing so is October 15.

“If a squad member is injured between 16th September (initial submissions) and start of the support period (October 15), they can be replaced without going through the Event Technical Committee," revealed a source in the know of things to TOI.