BGT schedule will exhaust Jasprit Bumrah before last two Tests, feels Simon Doull

Former New Zealand pacer and veteran commentator Simon Doull feels that Australia have scheduled the five-Test series against India in such a way that the asprit Bumrah might be exhausted before the final couple of games.

India are in a precarious position in the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle after being whitewashed in the three-match series at home by New Zealand earlier this month. Rohit Sharma and Co. will now have to beat Australia by at least 4-0 in the five-match series to qualify for the WTC final. Even a 3-0 win might not be enough as they will have to rely on other results in that case.

The onus will be on Bumrah to spearhead the bowling unit Down Under. However, Doull feels that Australia identified the threat that talismanic pacer could pose and scheduled the matches in a way that drains him out before the last lap of the tour. Doull believes that hosting the first Test at the Optus Park in Perth is a masterstroke from the world Test champions. The 55-year-old reckons that Bumrah will have to bowl more in the first three games and the tourists would be forced to rest him for at least one of the last two Tests, if not both.

“What Australia have done smartly is scheduling. They know that while batters are going to be key in some shape or form, but their biggest threat is Jasprit Bumrah. So they have gone with the three hardest and fastest surfaces, plus the Pink-Ball Test. They are trying to cook Bumrah. They will cook him in the heat of Perth, where he will have to bowl a lot of overs. Then he is going to have to go and bowl a lot of overs in that second pink-ball Test match in Adelaide,” Doull said on Jio Cinema.

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“And then you've got to go to Brisbane where generally, first up, the seamers are quite good as well. So we're going to cook Bumrah in the first two, three Test matches, make sure he bowls a lot of overs. And then they're going to have to make a change. They're going to have to go to someone else. So I think the scheduling from Australia's point of view has been quite smart because very rarely do they start a series in Perth,” Doull opined.