Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has expressed his desire to be the captain for his team. The bowler has shined throughout the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, winning the Player Of The Tournament title. Bumrah has shown himself to be a big asset for the team. With Rohit Sharma retiring from the T20I format, Suryakumar Yadav has become the new captain while Shubman Gill is next in line. This has made Bumrah speak up for himself.
In 2022, the BCCI‘s selection committee considered Jasprit Bumrah as a potential replacement for Rohit Sharma as the captain for all formats. Bumrah led India in a rescheduled Test against England. He also served as Rohit’s deputy in recent tours, including South Africa and England. Despite showing strong leadership skills and wanting to take on the role, the BCCI chose to focus on Shubman Gill for the captaincy.
“It’s above my paygrade” Bumrah says
While the BCCI focused on Shubman Gill, Bumrah told Indian Express that he is ready to lead the Indian team if given the chance. He explained that he can’t decide or demand to be made captain. Bumrah hinted that he does not have that kind of power in the team.
“That is something that I don’t decide I cannot go to you know the team and say now you have to make me Captain. I don’t have that much power and it is above my paygrade,” Bumrah said.
Why Jasprit thinks bowlers can be smart captains
Jasprit Bumrah has always come out in solidarity with bowlers. Earlier he opened up saying he always thought why were bowlers rarely called the POTT. He won that title himself, to show his worth. Now, Bumrah argues that bowlers can be smart and brave captains.
To further emphasize his point, he added that the bowlers are blamed if a team loses, so they should also be holding the leadership roles.
“I feel the bowlers are the smart people because you know, they have to get the batsman out and we are obviously always fighting the odds because the grounds are shorter, the bats are better. I don’t remember any article or any technology coming that okay, we are helping the bowlers to swing the ball a lot more.” Jasprit said.
“When we lose a game, it’s usually the bowlers that are being blamed. It’s a hard job. So I feel that, you know, I take a lot of pride in doing that job, it requires a lot of guts to also, you know, physically put a lot of strain on your body and you still enjoy the game and still create an impact. So you get Yes, you have to face a lot of challenges that come along with it.” Bumrah added.
Jasprit further gave examples of successful captains who are also bowlers of their teams. Bumrah backed his point with examples of big captains like Australia‘s Pat Cummins and Pakistan‘s Wasim Akram.
“I think leadership requires you to be brave. So I am also always of the opinion that we see whenever we’ve seen Pat Cummins doing really well. When I was young I have seen Wasim Akram being the captain. Kapil Dev has won the World Cup for India. Imran Khan has won a World Cup for Pakistan. So bowlers are the smart ones.” He said.
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