I Had Spoken To BCCI During The IPL About My Workload

The energy in the Indian dressing room will be different as India take on England in the five-Test series starting at Leeds on Friday.

- HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: New captain Shubman Gill leads a side that is fairly inexperienced. Jasprit Bumrah will be an important senior and his fitness and wicket-taking will be crucial for India.

Eyebrows were raised when Bumrah, who led India in two Tests in Australia, was not appointed Test captain to succeed Rohit Sharma. Bumrah missed the Champions Trophy earlier this year as he was recovering from a stress reaction of the back he suffered during the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney in January. He only returned to action after Mumbai Indians' first four games in IPL 2025.

Announcing Gill as skipper of an 18-member Test squad on May 24, chief selector Ajit Agarkar had said: "Bumrah is more important to us as a player. We want him fit. There's always that extra burden when you're leading, managing 15-16 other people. We'd rather have him bowling as well as he does. He's aware of it and he'd rather look after himself and be bowling fit."

It had indicated a need to manage the bowling spearhead's workload. Bumrah, in an interview with Sky Sports Cricket, revealed that he had opted out of the captaincy race when BCCI was in the decision-making process for that reason.