India vs Australia: Final call of Jasprit Bumrah will be taken on match day, says coach Vikram Rathour

Team India is not ruling out bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah’s participation in the deciding fourth Test against Australia, which gets underway at Brisbane on Friday (January 15). Bumrah had suffered an abdominal strain during the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 

Apart from Bumrah, India have already lost the services of batsman Hanuma Vihari and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who were part of the playing XI in Sydney. “Medical team is working with Bumrah. We’ll have to wait till tomorrow morning to see how he pulls up. If he can play great and if he can’t we’ll deal with it,” batting coach Vikram Rathour said in the pre-match press conference on Thursday.

Unlike Australia, who announced their playing XI early on Thursday morning with only Marcus Harris replacing injured Will Pucovski, India are likely to wait till the last moment to decide on the playing XI. Rathour didn’t even reveal whether Rishabh Pant, who scored 97 in the second innings of the SCG Test, will play as a pure batsman after hurting his elbow in the first innings of third Test.

“There’s still a lot of injury concerns, they’re still being monitored. All these questions can be answered only tomorrow morning,” Rathour said.

In spite of all these injury concerns, batting coach of the Indian team was confident about the mental strength and ‘toughness’ of the Indian team. “Toughness comes from the preparation. The boys have been working hard, they have a lot of belief in their abilities. Even after Sydney Test, the coaching staff kept telling the players to keep preparing. They’ve shown character to come back in this tour. I don’t believe in momentum. After 36 all out, to come back and win the next game – that tells about momentum. We’ll put up the best 11 on the ground, all of them deserve to be there. We are backing our processes and players. If we play to potential, we’ll do well,” the former Punjab opener said.

One of the other major talking points in the aftermath to the drawn third Test in Sydney was the ‘Scuffgate’ controversy involving former Australian captain Steve Smith. On the issue of Steve Smith removing he batting mark of Rishabh Pant, Rathour said, “We didn’t know about the incident, as a batsman Rishabh wasn’t even aware that was done. I wouldn’t like to comment as it hardly mattered.”