Former Australia pacer Jeff Thomson said that given his workload, team India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah would need to prioritise the forms of the sport. Bumrah made his IPL debut in 2013, and he soon established himself as a dangerous bowler across all three forms. Bumrah hasn’t slowed down in all these years, but the pacer’s injury issues have always plagued him.
Nevertheless, the elite pacer has been out of action for India due to a back ailment since September of last year. Despite the fact that he was slated to return for the ODI series against Sri Lanka, the bowler complained of back problems and was eventually ruled out of the squad. Thomson believes the pacer would need to decide which format of the game he wants to concentrate on.
“So, he (Jasprit Bumrah) needs to decide if he wants to play short formats, Test matches, or both. If I were playing today, it would be really difficult for me to play Test matches. Particularly when you receive so much money in the short version of the game, which just increases your lifespan. We didn’t have to bother about the money back then since there wasn’t any. “It’s now a massive company,” Jeff was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.
The former Australia cricketer appropriately summarised the situation faced by today’s cricketers by pointing out that money plays a huge part in the game. He also advised athletes to be astute when it came to workload.
“The only one who will look after you is yourself. So you have to figure out how long I’m going to play for and how I’m going to handle it since no one else will. In terms of workload, I believe you must be more astute these days, and keep an eye on what you have to play. If you’re talented enough, they’ll select you anyhow, therefore you should be able to pull the strings,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bumrah has begun training at Bengaluru’s National Cricket Academy (NCA). The pacer is expected to play in the remaining two Test matches against Australia in the upcoming series.
