The mystery surrounding Jasprit Bumrah’s road to recovery and his impending return to Team India is becoming increasingly intriguing. Recent reports indicated that Bumrah’s rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy, following his surgery for a stress fracture in his back, is progressing according to schedule. There was even speculation that he could be back in action as early as the Ireland T20Is in August.
However, just two days later, news emerged that Bumrah was bowling seven overs a day at the NCA and was preparing to play practice games, despite his comeback still being some way off. This bittersweet update had barely settled in when another exciting development regarding Bumrah surfaced – he is set to play in the Asia Cup in September. And on Thursday, more good news arrived when Ravichandran Ashwin revealed details about the India pacer’s return.
During a discussion about the recently announced World Cup 2023 fixtures and his predictions for India’s matches against various opponents, Ashwin dropped Bumrah’s name as the most positive update. Ashwin’s revelation about Bumrah’s potential participation in the India vs Pakistan match, scheduled to take place at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, will undoubtedly be music to the ears of every Indian cricket fan.
“The last few games between India and Pakistan in the ICC events have been extraordinary to say the least. I think we can expect another blockbuster India-Pakistan game,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“It’s going to be a very equally-balanced game because Pakistan also have a quality seam attack. For India, obviously, we are expecting Bumrah, maybe even Prasidh… all these guys to be fit. I don’t know what the combination is going to look like but all in all, a great contest on hand,” he added.
Bumrah has been absent from all three India vs Pakistan T20Is since last year. He missed two matches during the Asia Cup and one at the T20 World Cup. However, if he is fit for the upcoming Asia Cup, he will undoubtedly participate in the three highly anticipated IND-PAK matches scheduled for this year.
Despite the World Cup being three and a half months away, the epic clash between these two cricketing giants is already creating a frenzy. The demand for tickets is soaring, with hotels in Ahmedabad already fully booked in advance. Once the ticket window opens, it is expected that tickets will sell like hotcakes. The excitement is not limited to Bumrah alone; Ashwin is equally thrilled about the upcoming matches.
“The game I want to talk about is the one against Pakistan at Ahmedabad on October 15. Of course, it’s going to be a sell-out. 130000 will be the capacity audience at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Even in the 2011 World Cup, Ahmedabad had happy memories at Ahmedabad. The same venue was called the Motera Stadium back then where he played our quarter-final against Australia and beat them. We qualified for the semifinal against Pakistan and went on to win that World Cup,” added Ashwin.
“But from the Narendra Modi Stadium, we have some learning lessons from this year’s IPL and some ODIs at this venue. From IPL, we know that this is Shubman Gill’s home venue and he loves batting there. So he is really going to relish the game. During the IPL, the ball swung especially during the second innings of the game. Both Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya have enjoyed bowling here. Even Prasidh enjoyed bowling here during an ODI against West Indies. We defended 240-odd I think and ended up winning that game. So there has been a bit of lift and carry during the night. We are playing against Pakistan so I don’t know how to weigh in the toss factor here. In other venues, we can choose to bowl first due to the dew but Ahmedabad is more of a catch-22 situation.”
India is set to kick off their campaign against Australia on October 8th in the vibrant city of Chennai.
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