IND vs NZ 2024: Why is Jasprit Bumrah not playing the third Test match?

IND vs NZ 2024: Why is Jasprit Bumrah not playing the third Test match? (Photo Source: BCCI/ICC)

The third and final Test match of the ongoing series between India and New Zealand got underway on Friday, November 01. The city of dream Mumbai’s iconic venue, the Wankhede Stadium, is the host for the all-important Test match in the ensuing WTC 2023-25 cycle.

At the toss, both the teams made some notable changes to their Playing XI, however, the biggest name that was missing from India’s Playing XI was that of the speedster Jasprit Bumrah. Captain Rohit Sharma revealed that ace pacer Mohammed Siraj, who didn’t feature in the Pune Test replaced Bumrah for the Wankhede fixture. Meanwhile, New Zealand also missed out on experienced pacer Tim Southee alongside Mitchell Santner, the Player of the Match from the previous encounter.

Bumrah is not well, says Rohit; Santner has a side strain, mentions Tom Latham

Both the captains revealed reasons for their respective changes and why the three players could not feature in the third match of the series. As Tom Latham won the toss and chose to bat first, he announced that Matt Henry and Ish Sodhi would be appearing in place of Southee and Santner. Whereas the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said that Bumrah was unwell, and as a result, Siraj would replace him.

“Reasonably good surface. Want to put runs on the board and put pressure later on. Focusing on this game. That’s what we did in Pune after Bengaluru won too. But last week was last week. New opportunity in this game. It’s a funny game, Test cricket. In Sri Lanka, we didn’t play all that badly but you can fall on the wrong side of the results. Not much has changed here, we’ve kept things simple. (Pitch) Looks good. Regardless of whether batting or bowling first, it is about adjusting to the surface. We’ve got two changes: Santner has a side strain and Southee is out. Matt Henry and Ish Sodhi are in” said NZ skipper Latham.

“We’d have batted first too. We accept that we didn’t play well in this series. But this is an opportunity to correct that. Hopefully, we can restrict them quickly. (WTC final) Right now our focus is on this Test match. In the back of your mind, you need to keep in mind that, but right now we need to play our best cricket which we haven’t this series. Bumrah is not well, so Siraj replaces him,” Rohit mentioned at the toss.

Also Read: WTC 2023-25 cycle commences with England-Australia series, full schedule released

IND vs NZ, 3rd Test, Wankhede Stadium Mumbai – Playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, and Mohammed Siraj.

New Zealand: Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ajaz Patel, and William O’Rourke.

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