“It’s very difficult to decide a way to rest him” - AB de Villiers alleges potential mismanagement in Jasprit Bumrah’s case

Former South African explosive batter AB de Villiers has alleged that there could be potential mismanagement in Jasprit Bumrah’s case, as he has been requested to play only three out of the five Tests on the England tour.

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Notably, De Villiers’ comments came right after India suffered a five-wicket loss to England in the Leeds Test, even after five centuries were scored by the Indian batters across both innings of the game.

Interestingly, Bumrah started off the England tour with an exceptional five-wicket haul, his 12th away from home in Tests. However, he couldn’t get enough support from his peers as he failed to replicate his heroics in the second innings.

“He is probably the top bowler in the world in all formats right now. So, it’s very difficult to decide on a way to rest him, but in my opinion, Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game. And this Test series probably would’ve been the one, in my opinion, to get him ready for all five Test matches,” AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

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Furthermore, AB compared Bumrah’s case to the former pacer Dale Steyn, who used to be the spearhead for the South African national team during his playing days. AB reckoned that Steyn was rested in lesser important games to get him ready for big Tests. 

“That’s what we used to do with Dale (Steyn). Rest him in lesser important T20 and ODI series and get him ready for the big Test series against Australia, England, and India away from home... New Zealand, to a certain extent, depending on the rankings at that time,” he added.

He also asserted that this could be a case of mismanagement from the Indian medical team, or he could’ve received advice from his surgeon to not play all five games of the series. He also added that we should respect whatever decision has been taken at the end of the day.

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“So, I don’t know if it was mismanagement or perhaps because he recently got back from injury, sort of saw the IPL as the warmup phase. Maybe, went to the surgeon, who let him know, ‘You can’t play the five Test matches.’ So, I mean you got to respect that, and at the end of the day, it’s up to Team India to sort of manage him well,” he concluded.

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