Back injury hard to return from for Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah, reckons Mohinder Amarnath

With the T20 World Cup less than a year away, team India is trying to play their strongest eleven, testing out players that can fit into it by giving specific roles to them. Further, the team is trying other players in Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah's absence. While both are recovering from a back injury, Indian legend Mohinder Amarnath being a former Indian all-rounder himself felt that it was going to be an uphill task for both Hardik and Bumrah to get fit and return to their best.

He believes that while the Indian side has world-class batsmen like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and bowlers like Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, etc. and that they are well-covered in those departments, he feels that the absence of Hardik and Bumrah can be a concern for the team.

“The only concern I have is for the injured duo, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. A back injury is always hard to come back from for a bowler,” Amarnath wrote in his column for the TOI.

“It is either caused by a faulty action or trying for extra pace. I hope I am wrong, but a stressed back can make the return to top pace a long, arduous one. Both these lads are very, very important for the team, and I hope they heal well,” he further added.

Additionally, Amarnath believes that there is enough talent in India's domestic pool and with the more experienced players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the team, India must look to blood in the domestic talent and groom them for the future. Maybe he indirectly took a dig at Mahendra Singh Dhoni for opting out of domestic cricket and believed that the current lot of wicketkeepers have enough talent to replace him.

“It would be an unhealthy trend to start, particularly when there are hundreds of cricketers across India who are toiling in domestic cricket. This would send a wrong message about merit and hard work to them. Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson are all very competent and the thrust should be to look forward,” Amarnath concluded.