There has been a lot of chatter surrounding how the Indian cricket team will use star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the upcoming Test series against England. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar made it clear that Bumrah will not be playing all the matches and his workload management will be an issue that the team management will take very seriously. Former Australia cricketer Brad Hogg believes that Bumrah should be used strategically and even came up with a stunning advice. Hogg told RevSportz that Bumrah should be rested for the first Test match starting June 20 and should be used in the next two matches.

“You’ve got to be very strategic with those three Test matches,” Hogg told RevSportz. “Where are you going to get the most benefit out of him? Because he can turn the game, he can turn the series on its head. So you want to make sure that you play him at Lord’s, definitely, and probably Warwickshire.”

“And I don’t know where you’d play him in the other three Test matches, but you want to make sure you play him in those crucial games. I probably wouldn’t even play him in the first Test match, actually. I’d just go, ‘Right, England, we don’t have Bumrah.’ And you could just see England thinking, ‘Oh, they don’t have Bumrah – that’s good, we don’t have to face him.’ But then they’re going to start worrying about him in the second Test match. And if he turns the tide in the second match, then all of a sudden England are playing catch-up. So I’d add a bit of by-play there,” Hogg added.

Shubman Gill, who is set to begin a new era as India’s Test captain with five-Test series against England, starting from June 20, revealed that there are no expectations from the head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar as they want him to express himself as a leader and not expect him to do something he can’t.

Following the Test retirement of Rohit Sharma, Gill was appointed as India’s 37th Test captain. He has played as an opener and No. 3 batter for India in Tests. His first assignment as skipper will mark the beginning of India’s new World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle. The right-handed opening batter will have wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant as his deputy.

(With IANS inputs)