The All-India Senior Men’s Selection Committee will convene on May 19 to pick the squad for the one-off Test and three ODIs against Afghanistan, and all eyes are on Jasprit Bumrah and his workload. The pacer has been on the road for the last three months, playing the T20 World Cup and then the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season for the Mumbai Indians. According to a PTI report, the ace speedster will either play the Test or the three ODIs as the committee wants to keep the 32-year-old fresh.
The one-off Test, scheduled to be played from June 6 to 10 in Dharamsala, isn’t part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, and hence there’s a case for resting Bumrah for the immaterial Test.
According to sources within the BCCI, the selectors have decided to rest Bumrah whenever possible, and hence he would not play both Tests and ODIs against Afghanistan; the speedster would be used for just one assignment.
If Bumrah doesn’t play the Test, the attack will most likely be spearheaded by Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna. However, if the speedster is named in the Test squad, then Jammu and Kashmir pacer Auqib Nabi, who had a breakout Ranji Trophy season, might have to wait for his chance.
Last year, Bumrah was criticised by several pundits after he played just three Tests in the five-match series against England owing to workload management. However, he then played all the matches against the West Indies and South Africa.
Coming back to Bumrah, the pacer is going through a major blip in form in the IPL 2026 season, picking just three wickets in 12 games. Recently, he led the Mumbai Indians for the first time in the absence of both Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav and the five-time champions registered a win over the Punjab Kings.
Devdutt Padikkal might also replace Sai Sudharsan at No.3 in the batting lineup. The other options for that slot are Washington Sundar and Dhruv Jurel.
What about ODIs?
The bilateral ODIs have gained prominence because the 50-over format is the only one in which Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma play. Delhi speedster Prince Yadav might earn his maiden ODI call-up considering his form for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the IPL 2026 season.
Not just the IPL 2026 season, Prince was exceptional in the Vjay Hazare Trophy for Delhi as well, picking 17 wickets from 8 Vijay Hazare Trophy games. Since Harshit Rana is yet to recover from his injury, the selectors might reward Prince with an ODI call-up.
