London, Aug 1 (IANS) Fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been released from India’s squad, after not being included in playing XI for the ongoing fifth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test against England at The Oval, due to workload management, said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Bumrah wasn’t spotted in the Indian team bus ahead of arriving at the venue for day two’s play. “Mr Jasprit Bumrah has been released from India’s squad for the fifth Test of the series against England. The fifth and final Test of the series is underway at Kennington Oval, London,” said the BCCI in a statement on Friday.

Before the five-match series began in England, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir said Bumrah wouldn’t feature in more than three Tests on tour due to workload management. Bumrah featured in the first Test at Headingley, Leeds, followed by the third and fourth games at Lord’s and Old Trafford, Manchester, respectively.

In three games, Bumrah picked 14 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls, coming off bowling 119.4 overs at an average of 26 to be the leading wicket-taker for India in the ongoing series. Bumrah could have been expected to play in the fifth Test at The Oval, but he wasn’t included in the playing eleven.

“We obviously want to wheel him out, but we also want to respect where his body is at, and on the basis of that, we just felt that it wasn’t worth including him in the squad. He has bowled a large number of overs, I know it doesn’t always seem like that because he’s only played three tests and he’s only bowled in one innings in Manchester.”

“But if you look at the loads, he’s bowled a lot of overs, and like he did say coming into the tour, he was going to be available for three games, and we just felt it was right on that call,” said India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate at the end of day one’s play.

India’s updated squad for fifth Test: Shubman Gill (C), KL Rahul (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh, and N Jagadeesan (WK)

–IANS

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