Jasprit Bumrah's future in the Champions Trophy is still awaited. The Indian spearhead is currently working on his fitness at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
As per reports, he has now taken a big step towards working on his recovery post the back injury he picked up in the fifth Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Bumrah, who is out of the India team since that SCG Test, will reportedly begin training after undergoing scans on his lower back. The report further stated that the results of the scans have been discussed internally.
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Jasprit Bumrah Had His Scans Done At BCCI's Centre Of Excellence
Reports in ESPN Cricinfo confirm that Bumrah had his back scans done at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru recently. The BCCI medical staff will now coordinate accordingly with the selectors regarding Bumrah before a decision is taken. Cricinfo further reported that a final decision on Jasprit Bumrah's Champions Trophy future will be taken on February 11.
Bumrah injured his back on day 2 of the Sydney Test. He was taken for scans immediately and since then has been out of the game. The Indian pacer is almost ruled out of participation from the Champions Trophy by Dr. Rowan Schouten with whom the Indian pacer is in regular contact post his back injury. Bumrah has had a history of back problems and even missed the T20 World Cup 2022 due to a stress fracture as well.
Since the Australia tour, Bumrah has missed the T20I series against England. He was not named in the England ODI squad with Harshit Rana replacing him. The selector have named him in India's preliminary Champions Trophy squad but his participation is subject to fitness.
"Even if there is a 1% chance, the BCCI is likely to wait. They did the same with Hardik Pandya as they waited for close to two weeks before getting Prasidh Krishna as a replacement. Even when Shubman Gill was down with dengue, they didn't have any thoughts of looking for a replacement," a source close to developments told the Times of India.
"Yes those two incidents happened during the campaign but approach with Bumrah could well be no different. This is just the deadline to submit the squad and they could approach the Event Technical Committee at a later stage to seek a replacement if he fails to regain fitness," the source added.
BCCI Has Options In Case Bumrah Is Ruled Out Of Champions Trophy
In case he is ruled out, the BCCI can name his replacement till February 12. Following that, any personnel changes will have to be approved by the ICC Technical Committee. India kick off their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh on October 20. They play Pakistan next on October 213 followed by New Zealand on March 2. India will be playing all their matches in Dubai as per the hybrid model.
Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh are the two pacers India named in their preliminary squad alongside Bumrah. In case, he is eventually ruled out, the BCCI have enough options in the form of Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed or even Harshit Rana who made a decent impact with the ball in the ODIs against England.
