Indian captain Shubman Gill has confirmed that star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will return for the third Test against England at Lord’s, starting July 10. Bumrah was rested for the second Test as part of workload management.
Speaking at the toss before the second Test, Gill said,
“We would’ve liked to bowl first too. The pitch usually helps bowlers on Day 1. We’ve made three changes – Reddy, Washington Sundar, and Akash Deep come in.”
He added,
“Bumrah isn’t playing this match to manage his workload. This is an important series for us, and we plan to bring him back for the third Test at Lord’s where we expect more from the pitch.”
Bumrah played in the first Test at Leeds, which India lost by five wickets. The team management had already announced earlier that he would only play three out of five matches in the series.
Gill also mentioned they considered playing Kuldeep Yadav, but the team chose to strengthen the batting lineup instead due to a weak performance by the lower order in the last match.
Playing XIs:
India:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
England:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
Bumrah’s return at Lord’s is highly awaited as India looks to bounce back in the series.
