Why Jasprit Bumrah declined India's Test captaincy: Star pacer clarifies
What's the story
India's premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has finally broken his silence regarding the Test captaincy.
The right-arm pacer, in a recent interview to Sky Sports, said that he was the first-choice captain for India's Test side. However, he himself rejected the offer considering his workload management.
Bumrah stated that he himself called the BCCI and informed them about his decision.
Here are further details.
Decision rationale
'Consulting with those managing my back...'
Bumrah said, "Before Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired, during the IPL, I had spoken to the BCCI about my workloads going forward in a five-Test match series."
He emphasized that after consulting with those managing his back and surgeon, they all agreed he needed to be smarter about his workload.
This led him to inform the BCCI that he wasn't interested in a leadership role due to not being able to play all Tests.
Team 1st
'Didn't want to be in a position...'
Bumrah stressed that he didn't want to be in a position where one person leads for three Tests and another for the rest.
He added, "BCCI was looking at me for the leadership role, but I had to turn them down because it is not ideal that someone captains for three Test matches and then someone else has to captain. So it is not fair to the team because I wanted to put the team first."
Captaincy
Bumrah sees the bigger picture
Bumrah, in his statement, added that cricket means more to him than captaincy.
"I worked very hard for it, but unfortunately sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture. I like cricket more than captaincy. So I want to contribute more to the Indian team as a cricketer and as a player. Yes, there are ambitions, but that's how it is and in the end I called BCCI and refused the captaincy."
Selection committee's view
What Ajit Agarkar had said
On May 24, the Senior Selection Committee chairman Ajit Agarkar announced the Indian team for the England tour and appointed Shubman Gill as captain.
At that time, he had said that the BCCI wanted Bumrah to focus on his workload issues instead of taking on the additional burden of Test captaincy.
However, now the whole situation has become clear after Bumrah's statement on this matter.