'He prioritises his Test cricket': Mahela Jayawardena on Bumrah's love for longest format

Leading Team India is every cricketer's childhood dream and pacer Jasprit Bumrah is also relishing the pursuit of leading the country in England. Bumrah on Friday was appointed as the captain of Team India for the upcoming ENG vs IND Test as skipper Rohit Sharma is yet to recover from COVID-19. Addressing the development, Sri Lankan cricket legend Mahela Jayawardena, who coached Bumrah in his IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians, spoke about his passion for the longest format of the game.

India tour of England: Mahela Jayawardena praises Jasprit Bumrah 

It is pertinent to mention here that Jasprit Bumrah will be the second fast bowling skipper after Kapil Dev to lead the team in the longest format of the game. While speaking to ICC website, Mahela Jayawardene, while praising Bumrah, said, "It’s just that the passion that he has to wear whites. We’ve had this conversation many years ago, and when he started playing Test cricket for India. And then, the more time that we spent in the Mumbai camp, it seems that Bumrah wants to talk about red-ball cricket. He loves it."

He further added, "It is amazing that you come across fast bowlers who enjoy being out there playing Test cricket, it’s refreshing. He looks forward to each and every Test series. He doesn’t want to miss a single Test for India … he prioritises his Test cricket very much." India are currently 2-1 ahead in the five-match contest and the visitors need a win or a draw to secure a series victory in England since 2007.

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With Rohit Sharma ruled out of the Test match due to COVID-19, the question remains as to who will be his replacement at the top order along with Shubman Gill. Currently, the toss-up is between Hanuma Vihari and KS Bharat to be Gill's partner since Mayank Agarwal has just travelled to England and is short of match practice. Bharat, on the other hand, was impressive in the warm-up fixture while Vihari also got some runs under his belt. Bumrah will look to lead the team from the front and has quite an impressive record in England. The pacer has so far scalped 32 wickets in 8 matches with two five-wicket hauls.

India's probable XI vs England: Shubman Gill, KS Bharat, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj.