Hyderabad:

Addressing the press conference to announce the India's squad for Test series against Ben Stokes' men, Agarkar said that Bumrah will not be available for all five Tests in the upcoming tour of England due to workload management concerns based on input from the Indian cricket board's physios and doctors.

India found themselves in spot of bother as Chairman of selection committee Jasprit Bumrah on Saturday confirmed that pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will not be available for all five Tests in the upcoming tour of England. The Shubman Gill-led side is scheduled to play five-match Test series against England with first Test starting June 20 in Headingly, Leeds.

"I don’t think he is available for five Tests, as far as the physios and the doctors have told us," Agarkar said on Saturday.

"Whether it’s four, three, we will see how the series goes and how his body takes the workload. He is very important to us. Even if he is fit for three or four Test matches, he is going to win us Test matches.

"We are glad he is fit and the setback he had in Australia wasn’t too bad. He has started playing again, I know it’s T20 cricket at the moment, but we have seen what he is doing in the IPL. I am very happy he is part of the squad," he added.

A total of 11 players out of 18-member squad including 3 pacers and a fast bowling all-rounder haven never played Tests for India in England. In addition to this, experienced batters like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are absent. Hence, India's new Test captain the 25-year-old Shubman Gill would have wanted world class bowler like Jasprit Bumrah available for the entire tour to have a go to option in bowling under pressure.

Apart from Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh (debut), and Prasidh Krishna have not played a Test for India in this conditions. However, Arshdeep has a experience of playing for Kent in County Championship last year that saw him take 13 wickets in five Division 1 matches at an average of 41.76, with best figures of 3/58.

Bumrah's fitness and workload management concerns appear to have influenced the selectors' decision to not name him as full-time captain after Rohit's retirement. Bumrah missed India's Champions Trophy campaign due to the back injury, but he has returned to play for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025. Bumrah has hit peak form, picking 16 wickets in nine matches for the five-time champions.

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