The much awaited first press conference of Gautam Gambhir as the new head coach of India took place on Monday where Gambhir gave his vision for the team. Amongst all the topics he covered during the press, he talked about the importance of management of work load for the pacer Jasprit Bumrah and even called him a ‘rare bowler’. “I’ve said it before, workload management for someone like Jasprit (Bumrah) is important. He is one rare bowler that anyone would want. You want him to play important games. That’s why the workload management for not just him but fast bowlers is important,” Gambhir said.
Bumrah has proved his worth for the team again and again. He previously spent an extended time on the sidelines and spent a majority of 2022 going in and out of the Indian team. He missed the 2022 T20 World Cup where India was eliminated in the semi-finals, followed by having a back surgery in March 2023 for which he had to be out for 4 more months.
His return in India was marked with the India vs. Ireland series in August 2023 where he also made his captaincy debut. He followed this with an amazing performance at the 2023 ODI World Cup and then further went on to bowl record making figures during the T20 World Cup winning campaign, showing his importance to the bowling crew.
The new head coach further went on to suggest that even though management of workload is very important for fast bowlers, he still expects batters to be available for all the game formats.
“If you are a batter, who’s batting well, you might as well just play all formats. Rohit and Virat have retired from T20Is now, so they will play two formats from now. Hopefully, they are available for most of the games,” he said.
