'He is calm cool, good maturity but he is a fast bowler' - Dinesh Karthik discards Jasprit Bumrah's captaincy prospects

Jasprit Bumrah had openly admitted his aspiration to become the India captain. He also cited Kapil Dev and Imran Khan, referring to bowlers who held the captaincy reigns before. But, former India cricketer, Dinesh Karthik has discarded the idea of Bumrah’s prospects of becoming the India captain. He was touted as the next T20I captain of India after Rohit Sharma retired, but Suryakumar Yadav was handed over the mantle.

It is worth noting that, Bumrah captained India in the rescheduled Test against England in 2021. He also led the team when they toured Ireland for the T20I series in the subsequent year. Karthik cited the workload reasons for the pacer to stay afresh for the crucial games and advised management to abstain from an added responsibility.

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“For a fast bowler like Bumrah, his fitness needs to be monitored and he needs to be protected as a player and only made to play in important matches, I keep saying this about Bumrah, he is like a Kohinoor diamond, we got to protect him, take care of him, make sure that he lasts as long as possible because whenever Bumrah plays in any format he makes an impact and that's what we want,” Karthik said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“Everything right ... He is calm cool, good maturity but he is a fast bowler so how can we play him for all three formats that is the biggest question the selectors would have had,” he added.

Bumrah has not played a single game after the T20 World Cup 2024. The right-arm pacer picked 15 wickets in the tournament and became the Player of the Tournament. He was the first player in the T20 World Cup history to become the Player of the Match without scoring a run. He also joined Australia’s Glenn McGrath and Mitchell Starc in the list of only three bowlers to clinch Player of the Match at ICC events.