T20 World Cup 2022 | India should not have a problem to win the tournament without Jasprit Bumrah, reckons Ajay Jadeja
Ajay Jadeja has shared his views on Jasprit Bumrah missing the T20 World Cup saying India should not have a problem as no playing role was assigned to him. Ajay further cited the example of Pakistan winning the ODI World Cup in 1992 without Waqar Younis who missed the tournament due to back injury.
Going into the T20 World Cup to be played in October, India’s worries have been multiplied with Jasprit Bumrah being ruled out of the tournament due to back injury. India’s bowling in death overs has been expensive of late and Bumrah’s unavailability might further weaken the bowling unit. With the ace pacer missing from the lineup a few have been raising concerns over how India will execute their bowling tactics in the tournament.
Former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja faced a similar kind of question regarding how India will move forward with Bumrah not bowling for them in the tournament and he came up with an optimistic answer. Jadeja believes that the Indian team should have no problem without Bumrah as they have played most of the games this year without him and have been superb in white-ball cricket.
"You know that this is a really tough one to answer. But to make it simple and for fans, just to give them hope. One, that we didn't play with Jasprit Bumrah throughout this year. We played very few games with Jasprit Bumrah and India still managed to do well,” he said while speaking on Cricbuzz.
“So there is no role play that got assigned to him. So luckily from that point of view, you know the Indian team should not have that problem. You cannot replace Jasprit Bumrah, not even trying to even go close to that because he's so special that you will miss him”.
Also, it will be interesting to see who replaces Bumrah in the showpiece event. The Australian pitches would assist bowlers with pace and bounce. Jadeja narrated a similar kind of story when Pakistan won the ICC World Cup in 1992 without the presence of their key pacer Waqar Younis who was battling with a back injury just like Jasprit Bumrah.
"Two, just to give you an assurance that you know people who are young and who've joined us, I'll give them a story from 30 years ago. There was another World Cup in Australia in 1992. The team that won that World Cup, not many people in India would like this, the team that won that World Cup had a similar thing that happened to them. A man called Waqar Younis in that period of time was the finest bowler in that format or any form and just like Jasprit Bumrah, he was that attacking bowler,” he added.
“However, hee missed out on that World Cup just before with a back injury, pretty similar to Jasprit Bumrah, but at the end of the day Pakistan happened to win that World Cup.”