Opinion: Should BCCI keep Jasprit Bumrah away from IPL to protect him for national team

Date: December 28, 2021. South Africa and India are fighting it out at SuperSport Park in Centurion. The visitors are all over the home team’s batters having picked two wickets already. Jasprit Bumrah runs in to bowl the fifth delivery of the sixth over of his spell. The batter taps a back of a length delivery to mid-off and suddenly Bumrah collapses wincing in pain.

Replays confirm that he twisted his ankle in his follow through and the heart of whole of India skips a beat. With all due respect to other fast bowlers in the Indian set up, Jasprit Bumrah is massively important for India across all formats. Irrespective of the format, he is the captain’s go-to bowler and with the amount of cricket being played these days, the pacer is always prone to injuries.

Add to it the high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL) that is played every year and the man delivers four overs regularly in each and every game for the five-time champions Mumbai Indians. Bumrah’s action is unique and different but at the same time, it also puts a lot of pressure on his back.

The national team management is already using him very carefully and the fast bowler is slowly becoming an overseas specialist for India as far as Test matches are concerned. One will understand just looking at the numbers how less Jasprit Bumrah has played at home especially in the whites. The man is currently playing the 25th Test of his career and has only played two matches at home.

He last played a white-ball game in India back in January 2020 and has featured only in three One-Day Internationals at home for India since the World Cup in 2019. Clearly, India are resting him enough from the internationals to keep him fit for overseas Test matches and the ICC events.

However, at the same time, Bumrah has featured in almost each and every match in the IPL. Since making his international debut in January 2016, he has played 14, 16, 14, 16, 15, 14 matches from IPL 2016 to 2021 seasons respectively. These are a massive number of matches given the competition in the T20 tournament and the amount of cricket played these days.

IPL vs International Cricket – The ever raging debate

That brings us to an infamous ‘Country vs Club’ debate. While the BCCI‘s approach towards managing Jasprit Bumrah’s workload in international cricket is understandable, doesn’t the same applies in case of IPL? Simply, if Bumrah rests during the IPL completely and plays for the rest of the year while managing his workload, the problem should be solved and the injuries will reduce as well.

Well, unfortunately the answer is not as simple. It has become imperative these days that the top Indian players play IPL, not only for the big fat cheque they get, but also for the stakes that are too high. No team would ever want their best player to miss an entire season of IPL after having groomed him from his earlier days. Even if they haven’t groomed him, certainly a franchise wants to win the coveted tournament and they would clearly want their best bowler to play all games for them.

To be very honest, there is no perfect answer to this Country vs Club question or even to the one that should Bumrah be kept away from IPL. Given the current scenario in world cricket or even in Indian cricket for that matter, IPL is too bigger stage for any player to miss. In a way, it also helps a player improve and rub shoulders with legends from other countries too.

Even if we chose to ignore other off the field reasons, a player would certainly love to play in the cash-rich league to grow as a player and even financially. Again, this decision from a player can’t be specified as correct or wrong. In short, BCCI shouldn’t or cannot keep Jasprit Bumrah away from the IPL.

Then how can he be protected from getting injured? A balanced answer to this according to me is, managing his workload even during the IPL. Not only in Bumrah’s case, but BCCI can talk to the franchises about the workload of certain players of Indian team who play international cricket regularly and ask them to rest them in between during the season instead of playing them for 14 matches over the course of 45-50 days.

This will majorly help when the IPL is being played just before a crucial overseas tours or the ICC event as there is a huge risk of players getting injured, something that has happened previously. But clearly, a player, or in this case Jasprit Bumrah, can’t be kept away from IPL for international cricket. It may seem wrong but it is what it is!