India will miss the services of their spearhead fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, in the Asia Cup 2022 as the speedster, earlier this month, was ruled out of the continental tournament due to a back injury.
However, Bumrah, who is India’s third-highest T20I wicket-taker sent his wishes to Dubai where India will kick off their title defence on Sunday against arch-rivals Pakistan.
Jasprit Bumrah shared a special tweet for Team India
28-year-old Jasprit Bumrah took to Twitter on Sunday afternoon, only a few hours before the India-Pakistan encounter, to send his wishes to the Men In Blue, who will be led by Rohit Sharma.
Bumrah, who was part of the 2018 Asia Cup winning side, also expressed his excitement toward the Asia Cup 2022, which started on Saturday with Afghanistan’s 8-wicket win over Sri Lanka.
“Sending my best wishes #TeamIndia’s way! Looking forward to an exciting tournament of cricket,” Bumrah tweeted.
Here, check out Jasprit Bumrah’s tweet:
Sending my best wishes #TeamIndia’s way! Looking forward to an exciting tournament of cricket
— Jasprit Bumrah (@Jaspritbumrah93) August 28, 2022
Jasprit Bumrah last played for India in the ODI series in England before being rested for the limited-overs tours to West Indies and Zimbabwe. It is believed that Bumrah experienced back spasms after returning from England tour and travelled to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, where he was detected with a niggle.
The Indian team didn’t want to take any risks with Bumrah, especially keeping in mind the T20 World Cup less than two months later in Australia. Along with Bumrah, India will also not have the services of death-overs specialist Harshal Patel, who is ruled out of the tournament due to a side strain.
How much has Bumrah’s absence hurt India?
Former India spinner Harbhajan recently spoke on the affect the absence of the the “extra-ordinary” Bumrah and Harshal Patel will have on Team India’s strength.
“Jasprit Bumrah is an extra-ordinary bowler. If you see his performances over the past two years, he has had quite an impact. This year he also became the captain. So him being not there is a respite for the other teams. He is a bowler who can turn the tide of the game,” said Harbhajan in a video uploaded on Sports Tak.
“Mohammed Shami and Harshal Patel are also not there. So the bowling of the Indian team looks slightly weak to me. But India has better spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin have a lot of experience, they can help the team win,” he added.
India’s squad for Asia Cup 2022:
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
