Rohit Sharma said he was mindful of Bumrah's workload after the Adelaide Test defeat on Sunday. (AP)Stressing that Jasprit Bumrah alone couldn’t shoulder the entire bowling burden all the time, India skipper Rohit Sharma said the others would have to put their hands up as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series progresses.
Sharma said India had to be ready for situations when Bumrah wouldn’t be among the wickets. “It’s great to have someone like Bumrah, but he is not going to be the only one who is going to do the job all the time,” he said at the press conference.
The skipper reckoned other bowlers were equal to the task. “We saw (Mohammed) Siraj, along with Bumrah, when he got those four wickets, the responsibility was shared. That’s what we look forward to. Bumrah will not get wickets at times. And the other guys need to step in,” he added.
The team’s batting philosophy was also something similar.
“That’s how we talk in the batting group as well, ‘X, Y, Z’ would not be scoring runs all the time. Everyone in the team understands that. It’s just not about one individual or two, if you want to win a Test or a series, everyone has to share the responsibility and get the job done. That’s something I have seen in this team all the time,” he assured.
Sharma said he was mindful of Bumrah’s workload, at a time when the Aussie pace attack hunts as a three- or sometimes four-pronged battery. Mitchell Starc proved to be the difference between the two sides in Adelaide, with skipper Pat Cummins joking that the left-arm paceman didn’t leave others too many wickets to take.
Sharma explained how the load on Bumrah is dealt with.
“I keep talking to him during his spells, ask him how his body has been holding up. It’s a five-Test series and we want Bumrah to be fresh and play all the five Test matches. It’s important to analyse these things, workload management is important. We have doctors, physios and trainers, and we see regularly which bowler has how much fuel. We keep talking about these things,” the captain said.
“Planning always happens. You can’t expect Bumrah to bowl from both ends, from morning to evening. It’s important to manage the bowlers. We talk to the bowlers, and then make a decision.”
He indicated that the other pace bowlers were a bit short on experience, but needed to step up.
“We are not playing with just one bowler, there are others who have to take responsibility. Be it Siraj, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna or Nitish Reddy, these guys have come to the team only now. We need to give them confidence as well. When they play a match, they need confidence and it’s my job to give them that,” he said.
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