India’s worst nightmare turned reality on Monday night when ace fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah was officially ruled out of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022 starting on October 16 in Australia, with the star player confirmed to be brought down by a back stress fracture which will keep him away from action for about 6 weeks.
Jasprit Bumrah had only just returned from a back injury which saw him miss the important Asia Cup 2022 tournament in the lead up to the T20 World Cup, as he had played a couple of matches against South Africa and Australia to prove his match readiness for the World Cup.
But the right-arm fast bowler, deemed extremely important for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup campaign, complained of back pain before the start of the series against South Africa at Thiruvananthapuram late last week, following which he was sent to Bangalore at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for further scans.
While media reports suggested that Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly refused by saying that the board will wait for the assessment of the pacer by an independent team of doctors, who would then provide consultation to the cricket board’s own medical team.
The BCCI informed on late Monday night in a press release,
“The BCCI Medical team has ruled out Team India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad. The decision was taken following a detailed assessment and in consultation with the specialists.”
“(Jasprit) Bumrah, was initially ruled out from the ongoing Mastercard 3-match T20I series against South Africa due to a back injury. The BCCI will be naming a replacement for Jasprit Bumrah in the squad for the marquee tournament soon,”
the release added.
Jasprit Bumrah was already replaced by right-arm fast bowler Mohammed Siraj for the ongoing three-match T20 series against South Africa, in which only one match is remaining which will be played on Tuesday night at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
With fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar among the reserves or standby for the T20 World Cup 2022, the Indian selectors are not expected to look beyond them when they will settle down soon to name a replacement for the injured Jasprit Bumrah, and hope that the ace fast bowler is not missed dearly in the World Cup.
The Indian team will be under pressure to perform better than they did last year, when they had failed to go past the first round following crushing losses against New Zealand and Pakistan.