Will India rest Bumrah? Is there room for Reddy?

 

On Wednesday, India will pick a 15-member squad for the two-Test home series against West Indies, which begins on October 2 in Ahmedabad. It's a deceptively tricky selection, with India about to feel the full force of R Ashwin's retirement for the first time (he didn't miss even one of India's 65 home Tests during his career), with Jasprit Bumrah's workload still needing to be managed, and with questions still lingering from the unexpected, unprecedented 3-0 defeat to New Zealand last year. Here are five that Ajit Agarkar's selection panel will need to answer.

 

 

Pick Bumrah or rest him?

 

 

The first Test in Ahmedabad begins four days after the final of the Asia Cup, which India have an excellent chance of featuring in. Four members of their Asia Cup squad - Test captain Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Bumrah - would ordinarily be certainties in a Test squad for a home series, but the circumstances around one of them are far from ordinary.

 

 

Bumrah only played three out of five matches in India's last Test series, in England, and that ratio of participation looks set to continue into the foreseeable future given his history of serious back injuries. So do India pick Bumrah for both Tests against West Indies, or just one of them? Or do they rest him for the entire series?

 

 

 

In a similar situation a year or two ago, India may not have found it especially difficult to rest Bumrah. But their bowling resources at the moment aren't quite what they're used to having in home conditions. There's the absence of Ashwin, for one, though you would expect a spin attack of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep, Washington Sundar and Axar to cope with it.