How Jasprit Bumrah’s absence will affect India’s prospect in Champions Trophy?

In a massive setback to Team India, premier speedster Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to a lower back injury.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed on Tuesday night that Bumrah, who sustained the injury during the final Test against Australia in Sydney, has not regained full fitness in time for the tournament. Bumrah will be replaced by young pacer Harshit Rana in the squad.

In response, many experts believe that Bumrah’s potential absence from the Champions Trophy will reduce India’s chances of winning it.

“Bumrah not playing will reduce India’s chances of winning the Champions Trophy by 30%, literally by 30-35%. With a fully fit Bumrah playing, you are guaranteed of those death overs. It would’ve been a different ball game altogether,” said former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri.

Bumrah, who had a sensational last year to claim the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year as well as the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year, played a pivotal role in India winning the 2024 T20 World Cup held in the West Indies and the USA. He also claimed 32 wickets, the highest from both sides, in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Tests in Australia.

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One of the key factors behind India’s T20 World Cup 2024 win was Bumrah’s brilliant show. During the tournament, Bumrah bowled 29.4 overs in eight matches and picked up 15 wickets. He did all this with an impressive economy of just 4.17 in the T20 format.

Besides the numbers, Bumrah bowled some crucial overs for the team. The Pakistan match turned on its head in favour of India due to Bumrah’s bowling. Even in the final, the pressure Bumrah created in the 16th over of the second innings took India to win.

These instances show how crucial a part of Bumrah is in Indian bowling. In his absence, Rohit Sharma will miss his go-to bowler and a real match-winner with the ball.

Without Bumrah, the Indian bowling would be 50% less potent and impactful than it could have been.

Former Australia great Ricky Ponting also believes that the potential absence of India’s pace spearhead Bumrah will significantly weaken the side’s prospects at the Champions Trophy.

“My biggest concern about India when they came for Australia in the Test series was Bumrah not having Shami there as a backup and him having to burden most of the load. And that’s probably what happened, and might even have something to do with why Bumrah got hurt. He probably ended up having to bowl a bit more in that series with Shami not being there. Now, the inevitable happened and Bumrah’s absence will significantly weaken the side’s prospects at the Champions Trophy,” said Ponting during a recent interaction.