Jasprit Bumrah. (Photo Source: Twitter)
Indian fans will finally get to see the talismanic Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah back in action after 11 months as he has finally regained full fitness after recovering from a stress fracture on his back. The experienced campaigner will be leading the Indian side that faces Ireland in a three-match T20I series in Dublin. Ruturaj Gaikwad will be Bumrah’s deputy in the series.
The Gujarat pacer revealed that while he was sidelined due to injury and recuperating, he kept a tab on India’s performances. Bumrah also said that he felt good when he met fellow Indian cricketers during his recovery phase at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Notable international cricketers like KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant joined Bumrah at the NCA to recover from their respective injuries.
“I met a lot of players at NCA. Sometimes things are not in your control. The body needs time to recover and you need to respect. When you come back you have the hunger. When you are playing continuous cricket you don’t know what an off-season looks like. In this phase, as long as my physical restrictions were over I wanted to work on my fitness and bowling. I was following how the team was doing and (it) was good to meet the players,” Bumrah said during a press conference as quoted by India Today.
Prasidh Krishna is also making a comeback against Ireland
The young and talented pacer, Prasidh Krishna, is also making a comeback in the series against Ireland. He underwent surgery for a lumbar stress fracture earlier this year. His last international appearance came against Zimbabwe in August 2022 at the Harare Sports Club. The 27-year-old has played in 14 ODIs and picked up 25 wickets.
It will be interesting to see if Prasidh gets his maiden T20I cap right away as there are other talented seamers like Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, and Arshdeep Singh already in the squad, apart from captain Bumrah. The first T20I of the three-match series is scheduled to be played on Friday, August 18 at Malahide Cricket Club Ground in Dublin.