Ajay Jadeja explains how India can still excel at T20 World Cup without Jasprit Bumrah

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Monday, announced that star pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been officially ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2022 due to a back stress fracture.

Notably, Bumrah had also missed the Asia Cup 2022 but returned during the home T20Is versus Australia, where he played two out of the three games. However, the right-arm pacer was then ruled out of the South Africa T20Is and put under observation by the BCCI medical team before a final call was taken on his fitness and availability.

There is no doubt that Rohit Sharma-led India will have an arduous job in finding a suitable replacement for Bumrah in the forthcoming global showpiece event. Many experts reckon India would face a lot of trouble in Bumrah’s absence, but former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja thinks otherwise.

Jadeja has opined that in recent times India have done well without Bumrah and pointed out that the Men in Blue should not have a problem as no role was assigned to the speedster.

“You know, this is a really tough one to answer. But to make it simple and for fans, just to give them hope. One is that we didn’t play with Jasprit Bumrah throughout this year. We played very few games with Jasprit Bumrah, and India still managed to do well,” Jadeja said while speaking on Cricbuzz.

“So there is no role play that got assigned to him. So, luckily, from that point of view, you know the Indian team should not have that problem. You cannot replace Jasprit Bumrah, not even close, because he is so unique that you will miss him,” he added.

Jadeja further cited Pakistan legend Waqar Younis‘ example from the 1992 World Cup, stating Younis too missed the tournament, but his national team still ended up winning the global tournament.

“I’ll give them a story from 30 years ago. There was another World Cup in Australia in 1992. The team that won that World Cup, not many people in India would like this. The team that won that World Cup had a similar thing happen to them. A man called Waqar Younis, in that period of time, was the finest bowler in that format or any format, and just like Jasprit Bumrah, he was that attacking bowler. He missed out on that World Cup just before with a back injury, pretty similar to Jasprit Bumrah’s, but at the end of the day, Pakistan happened to win that World Cup,” narrated Jadeja.