1 month ago
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The Sports and Medical Science team of National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru has left it on the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee to decide on Jasprit Bumrah's selection for the Champions Trophy. There are two parameters of fitness that the NCA checks before clearing a player's return to action. It is understood that once Bumrah completed his rehabilitation for his lower back injury under strength & conditioning coach Rajnikanth and physio Thulasi, he was declared medically fit.
However, doubts still remain over whether he is bowling fit or not before a tournament as big as the Champions Trophy. The ball has now been put in Agarkar's court and it is learnt that the chairman of selection committee, who is in Ahmedabad, had a chat with skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Gautam Gambhir on the issue.
While there is a debate whether it is worth taking a world class bowler who might be half fit or opt for a rookie like Harshit Rana who is fully fit, but if Bumrah is available for the back end, they would not want to miss out on a chance to have him on the roster.
Rana in any case will be a travelling reserve and can always come in if Bumrah is eventually ruled out. The other factor that's stopping them from completely resting Bumrah is optics. If he misses the Champions Trophy and is then available for the cash-rich IPL, it wouldn't look good.
India will send their final squad for the tournament by Tuesday midnight, and the ICC will release it on Wednesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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