Jasprit Bumrah out of Champions Trophy as team management takes no chances | Cricket News

Decision after chief selector, captain & head coach meet in Ahmedabad following differing medical opinions on pacer
NEW DELHI: Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the upcoming Champions Trophy due to injury, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) announced on Tuesday night.
Earlier in the day, captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar got together for a meeting in Ahmedabad, venue for the third ODI against England, to take a call on whether they wanted to risk Bumrah for the ICC tournament or opt for a replacement.
Bumrah was named in the provisional squad and the deadline for making changes to the squad was Tuesday midnight. Harshit Rana has been named as his replacement. Rana has been playing in the ongoing ODI series against England and has been given game time ahead of Arshdeep Singh.
Interestingly, Yashashvi Jaiswal has been omitted from the team to make way for ‘mystery spinner’ Varun Chakravarthy. Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube have been named as ‘non-travelling substitutes’.
TOI has learnt that the indecision over Bumrah stemmed from two different verdicts from Bumrah’s orthopedic surgeon in New Zealand and the BCCI’s own medical team. Dr Rowan Schouten in New Zealand was of the opinion that Bumrah could try resuming high-intensity activities while the BCCI medical team was unsure if the ace pace bowler should be rushed back to international cricket.
“Schouten is aware of Bumrah’s case history. He is not averse to Bumrah playing and trying himself out. However, the BCCI medical team has observed that a few ‘hot spots’ still persist in scans of his back. The BCCI team was very wary about giving a definite green signal. Tuesday’s meeting between Rohit, Gambhir and Agarkar revolved around this,” a BCCI source told TOI.
“There is also an argument that Bumrah has always had ‘hot spots’ in his back and still played. It was also up to Bumrah to feel confident about his back before taking the chance. There’s a lot of important cricket coming later in the year,” said the source.
Agarkar had mentioned on Jan 18 that the selection committee was hopeful Bumrah would be available for the last ODI against England on Wednesday, but that eventually didn’t happen.
There were also discussions around Bumrah going through his rehab on tour with two physios travelling with the team, but these ideas were also discarded.
The team management was also keen to get Varun Chakravarthy in the scheme of things. Chakravarthy played in the last ODI instead of Kuldeep Yadav to give him game time in ODI cricket. Yet, it was difficult to draft him in as a direct replacement for Bumrah. The selectors decided to retain Kuldeep and Washington Sundar but they had to drop Jaiswal to accommodate both Rana and Chakravarthy.
Squad for ICC Champions Trophy:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy
Non-travelling substitutes (will travel to Dubai as and when required): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj, Shivam Dube