We need to be careful that Bumrah is not overused, says chief selector MSK Prasad

Gujarat-born Jasprit Bumrah’s rise to stardom has been somewhat of a fairytale, after his emergence as a death-over specialist in the IPL while playing for the Mumbai Indians franchise helped him earn a place in the Indian team for the T20I and ODI format as well. Bumrah bowled a stunning 162.1 overs across three formats, which also included the 112.1 overs during the three-Test series in SA last month.

"I am delighted with Jasprit's performance. We always had confidence in his abilities as he had done well for Gujarat in Ranji Trophy. But now our primary goal is to monitor his workload very carefully with so much international cricket ahead. We need to be careful that he is not over-used," Prasad told PTI during an interview.

Bumrah made an impressive Test debut in the recently concluded tour of South Africa where he picked up 14 wickets in three matches which also included a fifer in the final Test match at Johannesburg. Bumrah’s action has always managed to trouble batsmen and Prasad highlighted that fact as an important factor while considering the youngster to play in a Test series.

"If you look at his action, it is a rare one and he can be prone to injuries. We need to use him for the important Test series coming ahead. For each and every fast bowler, the balance of workload is very important and the high performance team will be monitoring it closely," Prasad explained.

Prasad further went on to congratulate the wrist-spinning duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal who managed to wreak havoc in South Africa after they claimed a total of 33 wickets during the historic ODI series win against the home team.

"We always believed that wrist spinners are wicket-taking investments that we had to make. Both Chahal and Kuldeep have really lived up to our expectations. The most heartening aspect has been the pool that we have managed to create. We now have five quality spinners for three formats -- Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel," Prasad added.