Jasprit Bumrah finally broke his silence on not becoming the Indian cricket team captain for the upcoming Test series against England. In a recent interview, Bumrah revealed that he was a captaincy choice for the BCCI selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar but the star fast bowler had to turn them down due to ‘workload management’. As a result, Shubman Gill was handed the captaincy after the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant was appointed his deputy for the England series. In the interview with former India wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik on SKY Sports, Bumrah shared his conversation with the BCCI selectors regarding his workload and how hard it was for him to give up captaincy.

“Before Rohit and Virat retired during the IPL, I had spoken to the BCCI about my workloads going forward in a five-test match series. I’ve spoken to the people who have managed my back. I’ve spoken to the surgeon as well, who’s always spoken to me about how smart you have to be about the workloads. So I did speak to him, and then we came to the conclusion that I have to be a little smarter. So then I called the BCCI and said I don’t want to be looked at in a leadership role because I won’t be able to give all the Test matches in a five-test match series,” Bumrah said.

Bumrah has been struggling with injuries for quite some time and the BCCI made it clear that he will not be playing all the five Test matches in the upcoming series against England.

“Yes, the BCCI was looking at me for leadership. But then I had to say, no, that it’s not fair for the team as well, that, you know, a five-Test match series, three matches, somebody else is leading, two matches, somebody else is leading. It’s not fair to the team. And I always wanted to put the team first,” he added.