Jasprit Bumrah "Needs An Off-Season" To Manage Workload: Australia Pace Legend

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"Bumrah needs an off-season" to manage his workload, said Glenn McGrath

Jasprit Bumrah's workload management remained in focus during the India vs England Test series. At the time of the team announcement only, India's chief selector Ajit Agarkar had already informed that the right-arm pacer would not be available for all the five matches in the series. Bumrah played three of those matches with many former players questioning his absence in rest of the two games. The fast bowlers played the first, third and fourth match of the series, while missing the rest two as part of workload management.

Australia's pace great Glenn McGrath threw light on Bumrah's bowling and said the pacer needs an off-season to manage his workload.

"His whole action is different to a lot of fast bowlers. He's got a slow run-up and the last few steps just really accelerate him through the crease. He's got hyperextension, and he's just got a great wrist. And the way he releases it is a fair bit closer to the batsman because of his technique than all other bowlers. So, there's a lot that's unique about him, but when he gets it right, it just all comes together well. He's found what's worked for him," McGrath said at MRF Pace Foundation, as quoted by The Indian Express.

Bumrah played all the five Test matches against Australia in 2024-25 and ended up injuring himself. The injury eventually ruled him out of competitive cricket for more than three months.

"Unfortunately, what he does is pretty tough on the body. Especially when you're playing a lot of cricket, there's no time to have an off-season. He really needs to get a lot stronger physically and fitter to put up with the stresses of fast bowling. And he needs an off-season. It will get him strong through the season," McGrath said.

"You want your best bowler bowling. And he'll want to bowl all the time. If he's just bowling in short spells, then the batting team know they just can get through the three or four overs and then they're away. So it depends a lot on the other bowlers. You need another group of fast bowlers coming through to balance it out so that he doesn't have to bowl long spells. You've got other bowlers bowling equally as well to carry the workload. You look at Bumrah, he's so effective in ODI and T20 cricket. To limit himself to Test cricket would be a shame. But, he's got to work out what's best for him," the Australia great added.