
On Monday (October 03), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Jasprit Bumrah is officially ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2022 edition, in Australia. Bumrah will miss the forthcoming showpiece event Down Under due to a back stress fracture. The 28-year-old had earlier also missed the Asia Cup 2022 edition, in the UAE, due to back issues.
It goes without saying that Bumrah's absence will be a huge void to fill for Rohit Sharma-led India, who departed for Australia recently. The premier pacer has been India's go-to-bowler across formats but missed quite a few international games in the ongoing calendar year, due to injuries or being rested at regular intervals. Apart from being rested, the fact that Bumrah featured in all 14 games for Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2022 hasn't been well received by some of the Indian cricket fans. Some section of fans have now accused him of prioritising franchise cricket over national duty after being ruled out of the T20 WC.
The right-arm pacer Bumrah now took to Instagram, on Wednesday (October 05), to share a story where he shared a picture of Winston Churchill’s quote that read: "You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."
After Bumrah's omission, former Indian opener-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra has urged the BCCI selection committee to relook their strategy and add two pacers in his place. In a series of tweets, Chopra said, "Boom( Bumrah) was India’s attacking option that might have allowed for having more defensive options in the squad. Now that he isn’t there, I would be surprised if the selectors/team-management didn’t have a serious rethink about their strategy…Bumrah missed the tour to WI and Asia Cup…and if Shami was indeed the best option to replace Bumrah (in case, he didn’t make it) then he should have been a part of the Asia Cup at the very least. India went with only 3 fast bowlers. And paid for it."