India lost by five wickets to England in the first Test of the five-match series at Headingley on Tuesday (June 24). The visitors couldn't defend 371 runs as England romped home to victory as they kept India's best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, wicketless for the first time in 19 innings in away Test matches.
Bumrah didn't even bowl at the fag end of the fifth day despite the new ball being available. While India skipper Shubman Gill brushed away injury concerns around Bumrah, the head coach Gautam Gambhir has confirmed that India aren't moving away from plans to rest their best bowler in this series.
Bumrah bowled 43.4 overs in Headingley Test
Ahead of the series, it was confirmed that Bumrah will play only three out of five Test matches to manage his workload. After sending down 43.4 overs at Headingley, the 31-year-old seems set to miss the second Test match, starting from July 2.
"I think for us to manage Bumrah's workload is more important because there's a lot of cricket going forward and we know what he brings to the table as well. So before he came on this tour, it was already decided that he's going to play three Test matches, but let's see how his body turns up. But we haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play," Gambhir said in the post-match press conference.
How will India fare without Bumrah?
At the same time, the head coach urged to have patience with a young and inexperienced bowling attack that was left exposed whenever Bumrah wasn't bowling. He backed the bowlers to pick 20 wickets in the series whenever Bumrah wouldn't play.
"This bowling attack has one bowler with five Tests under his belt [Nitish Kumar Reddy], one has four [Prasidh Krishna], one has played two [Harshit Rana] and one hasn't yet debuted [Arshdeep Singh]. We will have to give them time.
"These are early days. If we start judging our bowlers after every Test, how will we develop a bowling attack? Outside Bumrah and [Mohammad] Siraj, we don't have that much experience, but they [the others] have quality, which is why they are in this dressing room.
"But we have got to keep backing them because it's not about one tour. It's about building a fast-bowler battery that can serve India for long time in Test cricket," Gambhir further added.
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