India suffered a major setback when their spearhead Bumrah was excluded from their latest preparatory streak against South Africa due to a stress fracture in the lower back.
“We are awaiting official confirmation on the next steps. As of now, he is officially banned from this series (SA). But we will see what happens in the next few days,” Dravid told reporters on the eve of the second T20I against South Africa.
A stress fracture in the back usually takes about six months to heal completely, but Dravid said they are still “confident.”
“Honestly, I didn’t go deep into the medical reports, I rely on the experts to tell me what it is. They have excluded him for this series and he is being evaluated. We will know in due course what will happen in the future,” said the 49-year-old.
“Obviously until he is completely ruled out and we have official confirmation that he has been ruled out, we will always be confident. We will always hope for the best just for us as a team and Jasprit as an individual.”
Bumrah, who was out of action from the Indian tour of England in July, had recently returned during the T20I home series against Australia, but the 28-year-old was forced to return to the National Cricket Academy again for rehabilitation.
Bumrah’s streak of injuries, despite his workload being carefully looked after by the think tank, has become the subject of debate.
Bumrah has played all 14 IPL games for his Mumbai Indians franchise and has since played just six internationals in four months.
Doing rehabilitation at the NCABumrah made a comeback in the previous Australian series where he played two games and traveled with the team to Thiruvananthapuram for the 1st T20I against South Africa only to be left out before the game.
“For the most part we manage to achieve everything. Not everything will be perfect. It happens, it is an integral part of the game, we are not the only team suffering from injuries.
“Obviously, if they happen closer to the big tournaments, they can upset your plans a bit. Everyone is working hard to minimize injuries as much as possible,” defended Dravid in managing the workload.
The workload management and their experiments ahead of the World Cup may have been the subject of much criticism, but Dravid has chosen to stay away from the “noise”.
“I know there is some noise from outside, but in the group the communication has been very good and there is clarity. It’s a bit unrealistic to expect us to keep playing the same guys over and over, sometimes they are forced to do it … like Bumrah.
“We played the same XI against South Africa in June, if you remember, and people kept saying why it doesn’t change. But in the group we are very sure of what we are doing.
“Sometimes, there are a lot of things that people don’t know from the outside, what the drawbacks are, how we’re going to do it, how we’re preparing for a test when there is a series in Ireland. It’s hard to explain.”
There has been a lot of discussion about who will replace Bumrah if he were officially banned as there are only two weeks left until the World Cup warm-up match against Australia.
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But Dravid said they are in their comfort zone, having all the skills for different conditions and rival teams in Australia.
“We are pretty confident that we have all the skills that allow us to play different combinations and different types of XIs based on wickets and opponents. This is really important in a World Cup when you play in 4-5 different venues.
“You have to have that little bit of versatility and flexibility in your team that allows you to change things.
“In the last few series, we probably haven’t been able to play with that team for a variety of reasons. But most of the guys in the 15 now have had a fair amount of cricket in the past six months.”
Dravid said he had absolute clarity on the roles assigned to each of the players in the squad destined for the World Cup.
“Within the group, within the team, we were pretty clear on the type of combinations we want, on the type of players we will probably play in XI. You can’t pick an XI months in advance, you don’t. I don’t know the wicket and how it is.
“We were pretty clear about the skills we want in the 15. For me, this is really important. The type of team we choose for the World Cup, excluding injuries, what skills we were looking for, different types of bowlers. , certain batting skills, on which we were very clear “.
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Happy with Harshal’s progress
After returning to action after overcoming a rib injury, death-to-death specialist Harshal Patel leaked the series racing against Australia.
But Dravid was happy with his progress.
“We are very happy with the way he is progressing. He played a phenomenal last against Australia in Hyderabad. The more and more games he plays, the better for him. He is really a mentally strong cricketer,” he said.
“He has been phenomenal for the franchise he plays in, even in international cricket he has played some good spells. He is preparing very well, he is training very hard.”
