Indian cricket and the BCCI were hit by a storm on Tuesday evening, and it came from the unlikeliest source: Chetan Sharma. Zee News performed a hidden sting operation on the BCCI chief selector and released the videos in public.
Chetan spoke of various issues and topics, giving inside information and revealing hidden secrets, including disclosing the entire Jasprit Bumrah injury saga from last year and what went behind the scenes, who said what, how the decisions were taken considering future risk and temporary rewards. Chetan Sharma blew it all up for the BCCI.
Jasprit Bumrah struggled with a back injury last year, which saw him miss the two most marquee T20 tournaments for India- Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. In between them, he returned and played two T20Is against Australia, when he flared up his injury and then was ruled out of the T20 World Cup.
Chetan revealed that he was always against rushing Bumrah back to action without the pacer being completely fit, but the bowler and the team management were desperate to have their star pacer back.
Here is what Chetan Sharma said of this entire Jasprit Bumrah injury saga:
“When he came back he was fit, so we planned because there were only two matches left before the T20 World Cup. My point of view was that he should play the third match of the series[vs Australia at home],” Chetan said in the sting operation conducted by Zee News.
“But Rahul Dravid and Rohit wanted him to play the second match then we will rest him for the third game and send him early to Australia. And out of our 3-4 practice matches (ahead of the T20 World Cup), he will play two of them.
“So I spoke to Bumrah, and Bumrah wanted to play the first match of the T20 series against Australia. I told him that ‘no no you can’t play the first match, you play the second match’.”
“And when he played the second match, in the evening he was a little uncomfortable so I got a call saying that ‘Sir we should send him for a scan’. Now the team management was caught in a fix, the selectors were also caught in a fix that Bumrah is having some issues and if we fly him to Australia and include him in the World Cup team. And once the team is announced we cannot change after that so we have to do the complete procedure after that.”
“When he was asked he replied saying ‘I am completely alright’ and then he played the second T20 match against Australia.”
Jasprit Bumrah played 2 T20Is vs Australia and was clearly not looking at his best.
Chetan said that Bumrah could have played in the Pakistan game, but there was a risk that his back would break down in the middle of the game.
“In the middle of the second match in the evening, I got a message saying that ‘we are taking him again for a scan’ and when they did the scan they found out that if he goes to the World Cup but will break down after one or two match. If we play him in the World Cup he will be out of the scene for atleast an year.”
“Now the selection committee was in a fix, the sports science (team) was also in a fix as to what to do next. We all will sit together and decide what to do next.”
“We called Bumrah, we spoke to him, and he said ‘I won’t be able to play. I will break down and the team will be in trouble, you won’t be able to plan so leave me out and that is why we didn’t pick him’.”
“If we had to play him, we would have picked him for the Pakistan match but if he had pulled out with injury after bowling two overs in that match, we would not have been able to show our face to anyone. Half of the sports science team would have lost their jobs and half of the selectors would have also lost their jobs.”