Abdominal strain ends Jasprit Bumrah’s Australia sojourn

Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the fourth and final Test, starting January 15 at The Gabba in Brisbane. The speedster has suffered an abdominal strain while fielding during the third SCG Test and won’t be able to recover in time for India’s final game on the tour.

However, the Ahmedabad-born is set to attain the desired fitness levels for India’s home campaign against England that starts a few weeks after the conclusion on the ongoing tour. India’s home series versus the Three Lions gets underway on February 5.

“Jasprit Bumrah suffered an abdominal strain while fielding in Sydney. He is going to sit out of the Brisbane Test but is expected to be available against England,” a BCCI source was quoted as saying in Outlook.

Shardul or Natarajan likely to replace Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah not being there invariably means that either Shardul Thakur or T Natarajan will play the final Test. Even as Shardul came in as Mohammed Shami’s replacement, the left-armer Natarajan got his maiden Test call-up after Umesh Yadav was ruled out of the Sydney and Brisbane Tests.

It goes without saying India’s pace attack has been severely weakened after missing out on the quartet of Shami, Umesh, Bumrah and Ishant Sharma. Due to the trail of injuries, the visitors have already handed Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini their maiden Test caps.

And after Bumrah not being there, one of Thakur and Natarajan will be having a massive task of filling the void. Saini and Siraj have been fairly impressive thus far, but they will have to bring forth their A-game if India are to win the 2020-21 edition of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

In the absence of all their experienced pacers, a lot will depend on spinner Ravi Ashwin. Going into the last Test, India have reasons to worry about as they are yet to win a single Test at The Gabba out of six matches, losing five of them.

The Aussies, on the other hand, have won over 40 Tests at the venue and have numbers in their favour. However, the visitors would be high on confidence especially after the resilience they showed in the third Sydney Test.