Jasprit Bumrah under fire for ‘pick-and-choose’ act, refusing to step up vs ENG: ’He’ll get 6/10, was below expectation'

Irfan Pathan took a dig at both Jasprit Bumrah and the team management for being overly careful with his workload.

Jasprit Bumrah has been scrutinised for picking and choosing matches during the England tour as part of workload management strategies. The premier pacer played three Tests on the tour and missed the Edgbaston and Oval clashes, notably those were the two contests where India emerged victorious. He picked 14 wickets, including a couple of five-wicket hauls, but his effort didn't help India win any Test on the tour.

Jasprit Bumrah picked 14 wickets in the three Tests he played on the England tour. (Reuters)

Bumrah started the series with a five-wicket haul in the first innings of the Headingley Test but failed to replicate the same performance in the second innings and remained wicketless, where India had to defend a 371-run target. The hosts successfully chased it down, marking only their second‑highest successful fourth‑innings run chase in England. He also etched his name onto the Lord’s honours board with a five-wicket haul in the first innings, but couldn’t replicate the same impact in the second, managing just two wickets as India fell to another defeat. His outing in Manchester was equally underwhelming, returning with just two scalps while England amassed a massive 669 in their first innings.

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, who had previously questioned the selective use of Jasprit Bumrah, has once again taken a dig at both the pacer and the team management for being overly careful with his workload.

“There were moments, like when a sixth over was needed. I spoke about this during commentary as well. Joe Root had been dismissed by him 11 times, and in that Lord’s Test, Bumrah bowled five overs. Just one more over, the sixth, could have pushed harder. I felt he held back a little there. There was also some pick-and-choose, which I’ve always been against, and that was visible too," Pathan said on his YouTube channel.

“Bumrah didn’t quite live up to number one bowler tag”

Pathan asserted that Bumrah did perform in the three matches he played, but stated that he still didn't live up to the expectations of being the number-one ranked bowler.

“To be fair, whenever he played, he did perform. He took a five-wicket haul and got his name on the Lord’s honours board. But when you are the number one bowler, there’s an expectation of number one-level performance, and I felt he didn’t quite live up to that,” he concluded.

The former India all-rounder didn't hold back. For the individual performances on the tour, he received only six out of ten ratings.

“Bumrah will get six out of ten. Why? The reason is that when you're a senior player, there is a lot of responsibility on you to win matches. He played in three Tests, and India didn’t win any of them," he added.

Pathan justified his average rating for Bumrah by highlighting the pacer's performances across the three Tests he featured in during the series.

“Let’s go back to the first Test. He took five wickets in the first innings but didn’t get a single wicket in the second innings. At that crucial time, when your main match-winner is expected to step up and win the game, it’s up to him to find a way, whether it’s over the wicket, around the wicket, yorkers, slower balls, bouncers, to create pressure. In the Leeds Test, we didn’t see that pressure being built. England ended up scoring heavily, and Bumrah didn’t take a single wicket, which was a bit surprising. And this didn’t happen just once,” he continued.