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Ravi Shastri has warned India against rushing Jasprit Bumrah back for the 2025 Champions Trophy, saying he’s ‘too precious’ and might struggle to match expectations after his injury.
Jasprit Bumrah (Picture Credit: ICC)
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri thinks India shouldn’t rush Jasprit Bumrah back for the 2025 Champions Trophy even if their chances of winning the tournament without him will be reduced by 30-35%.
Bumrah suffered a back injury at the end of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. He is yet to recover from it fully and after resting for weeks, has been reportedly at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru where medical experts are working on deciding his comeback roadmap.
There have been other reports saying that the pacer is targeting the third bilateral ODI between India and England on February 12. The Champions Trophy will begin a week after that, on February 19.
“I think it’s high risk. There’s too much big cricket coming up for India,” Shastri told host Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review. “At this stage of his career, I think he’s too precious to be just called on for one game out of the blue and asked to deliver. The expectations will be so much. They’ll think that he’ll come in straight away and set the world on fire. It’s never that easy when you come back from injury.”
“Bumrah not fit will reduce India’s chances [of winning the Champions Trophy] by 30%, literally by 30-35%,” he said. “With a fully fit Bumrah playing, you are guaranteed those death-overs. It would’ve been a different ball game altogether.”
Meanwhile, former Australia captain, Ricky Ponting, on the same show said there’s space for optimism with Mohammed Shami coming back. Shami missed India’s 2024 international calendar due to an ankle injury and its related aftereffects and recently played two T20Is against England.
“My biggest concern about India when they came for Australia in the Test series was Bumrah not having Shami there as a backup and him having to burden most of the load,” Ponting said on the show. “And that’s probably what happened, and might even have something to do with why he [Bumrah] got hurt. He probably ended up having to bowl a bit more in that series with Shami not being there.”
Shastri, though, was more cautious and said it needs to be seen how Shami’s body holds up in ODIs.
“It will be interesting to see if India play him out in all three, or they give him the first one and the third one, and then ease him into the Champions Trophy,” Shastri said. “But he’ll be watched very closely because 10 overs is totally different to four overs, and then you’re going to see how he pulls up in the field as well having bowled those 10 overs.”
