India vs Ireland: Focus on Jasprit Bumrah’s road to World Cup as selectors pick T20I squad with eye on future

The BCCI’s announcement of the squad for the three T20Is in Ireland later this month doesn’t carry much significance for Indian cricket as far as upcoming tournaments are concerned.

The Men in Blue, after all, are going about experimenting with their combinations and trying out candidates for various roles in the ongoing tour of the West Indies, and there won’t be much deviation from their set combination and plans once the Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup get underway. There’s also a three-ODI series against Australia at home right before the World Cup, but that series is also likely to witness full-strength XIs fielded by both sides.

The announcement for the Ireland tour, however, is a major step undertaken by the powers that be in Indian cricket towards building a team for the future once the stars of the present bow out of the sport.

The biggest talking point of the announcement, and perhaps a primary reason why the series will be keenly followed by experts and fans of Indian cricket alike, is the highly anticipated return of Jasprit Bumrah to action.

Bumrah’s return

No cricketer has been missed by the Indian cricket team and its fans more than Bumrah, who has been out of action for the past one year due to a dodgy back and has since missed out on key events such as the T20 World Cup, Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Indian Premier League and the ICC World Test Championship final.

Bumrah had undergone surgery in New Zealand in March, and subsequently undergone extensive rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, where he had only recently began bowling in the nets and later in practice games, slowly increasing his workload under the careful supervision of NCA head VVS Laxman.

The BCCI only picked Bumrah in the squad after they received the thumbs up from Laxman and his team in Bengaluru, and given his stature as a senior member of Team India and the pace spearhead, trusted him to lead the young bunch. Bumrah, after all, has captained the Indian team before — in the postponed fifth Test against England in Birmingham last year — and therefore is no stranger to the task.

The series will be a litmus test of sorts for the Mumbai Indians pacer as he looks to establish his match fitness in the three matches that take place at The Village in the capital city of Dublin.

Bumrah will continue playing under the watchful eyes of Laxman, who will also be serving as the head coach in Rahul Dravid’s stead with the latter taking a break after the West Indies tour. The team management isn’t likely to take the slightest bit of risk should he start experiencing discomfort in his back anytime soon.

There’s an argument about bringing Bumrah back in action right away instead of keeping his fresh for the Asia Cup and the World Cup. However, one also has to take into the account the fact that the series might allow Bumrah to rediscover his old rhythm and slowly regain his peak form ahead of the big-ticket events.

Even for a celebrated bowler of Bumrah’s stature, rediscovering one’s peak is no child’s play and as such, it would’ve been a risk to keep him sidelined till the major events.

Also making his return is Karnataka and Rajasthan Royals seamer Prasidh Krishna, who also has been out of action for more than a year due to a lumbar stress fracture. Like Bumrah, Krishna too had to undergo surgery and had been undergoing rehabiliation at the NCA.

And given he was very much part of India’s white-ball plans before injury hampered his progress, Krishna might just be auditioning for a place in India’s squads for the Asia Cup and the World Cup.

Selectors looking towards the future

While the focus no doubt has been about Bumrah’s selection and his elevation to captaincy for the tour, the most crucial talking point from the squad announcement is the BCCI rewarding some of the less celebrated names on the fringes for their consistent performances, especially in the IPL.

Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma, after all, were among the standout performers across the 16th season of BCCI’s showpiece event, the former becoming an overnight sensation after smashing five consecutive sixes in the final over to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to a miraculous victory over Gujarat Titans. It therefore, came as a surprise to quite a few after the likes of Rinku were overlooked for the tour of the Caribbean and the United States.

Also Read | Rinku credits ‘special IPL innings’ for Asian Games selection

The BCCI decided to make up for the West Indies snub by including both Rinku and Jitesh along with several other fringe players such as Tilak Varma, Rahul Tripathi, Mukesh Kumar and Shivam Dube in the men’s squad for this year’s Hangzhou Asian Games with wicketkeeper-batter and opener Ruturaj Gaikwad serving as the captain.

The selection panel then decided to advance the debuts for the Hangzhou-bound players by including a majority of those players in the squad for the Ireland tour.

Read | ‘Dream will be to win gold medal, listen to national anthem’: Ruturaj Gaikwad

Gaikwad, who has opened for the Indian team in the recent past but faces intense competition from the likes of Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, has been named Bumrah’s deputy for this series. It, however, remains to be seen whether Gaikwad keeps the wickets in this series or Jitesh, one of Punjab Kings’ standout players in IPL 2023.

Much like their approach in the West Indies, India’s focus in this tour will not be so much on the results as it will be on seeing the players who could possibly succeed the Rohit Sharmas and the Virat Kohlis down the road, starting possibly as early as next year’s T20 World Cup.

India squad: Jasprit Bumrah (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shivam Dube, W Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan.