India’s speedster Jasprit Bumrah has not played international cricket since September 2022 due to a back injury. He was about make a comeback in the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka or New Zealand but then it did not happen. Former Australia legend Jeff Thomson reckons that Burma needs to decide between limited overs cricket or Test cricket for the sake of longevity.
“There is so much cricket. They play all year round. We didn't do that. We used to play seasons, the summer season. Occasionally we would go to England for our winter. It was a long tour, four and a half months. But generally we just played the summer so we would gradually build up after Christmas full on. Because I knew I was going to get rest,” Thomson said on Revsportz.
“Now, you can't do that. So you have to pace yourself to be around. That's why they have all those back up bowlers and they rest people. In our day we didn't rest. If we had a rest someone else would take our spot. It is a matter of having to rest these days because it is a 12-month a year job.”
“Well, Bumrah has to work out what he wants to play, short formats of the game or Test matches or both. If I think about if I was playing now, it would be very hard to play Test matches. Especially when you get so much money in the short version of the game. That just makes your longevity better. We didn't have to think about money in our days because there was no money. Now it's a business. The only one who is going to look after you is yourself. So, you got to work out how long I am going to play for and how am I going to manage that because no one else is going to. I think you have to be more cunning these days in workload and watch what you got to play and can't play. If you are good enough, they are going to pick you anyway so you should be able to pull the strings,” he added.
Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team will be playing against Pat Cummins-led Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, set to begin from February 9th.