Follow UsIndia’s chances of winning the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy took a huge hit after Jasprit Bumrah sustained a back injury that could very well rule him out of the competition.
Bumrah had one of the greatest series ever for a bowler in the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia, but he sustained a back injury in the Sydney Test which has now put his ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in jeopardy.
But India have been in this situation before, plenty of times. Should Bumrah miss the forthcoming Champions Trophy, it won’t be the first major event he would have missed in his career due to an injury. And, dare we say, it might not be the last, unfortunately due to the unsustainable nature of his action.
After playing the bilateral series at home against Australia (in September 2022) after a lengthy injury lay-off, it looked like Bumrah was on course to play the T20 World Cup Down Under in October-November. He was even named in India’s initial squad for the mega event.
However, Bumrah ended up aggravating the injury in the aforementioned series against Australia, in which he bowled a total of six overs and conceded 73 runs while taking a solitary wicket. He eventually ended up getting ruled out of the T20WC.
In Bumrah’s absence, India still managed to reach the semis, but got humiliated by England in the last four clash at the Adelaide Oval.
India lost the 2023 World Test Championship Final against Australia at The Oval by 209 runs, and, in many ways, they would put that defeat down to the absence of Bumrah.
Fielding a four-man pace attack of Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, India had Australia 76/3 inside the first three hours after winning the toss. But the pace unit’s inability to sustain pressure meant that Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) stitched together a 285-run stand and took the game away from the Rohit Sharma-led side.
Bumrah would, in fact, end 2023 having played just one Test - the Boxing Day encounter against South Africa in Centurion.
Believe it or not, India won the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy without the services of Bumrah.
The same back injury responsible for him missing the aforementioned two tournaments, kept Bumrah out of the 2023 BGT. It meant that India went into the series with Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj as their two speedsters.
However, the series being spin-dominated meant that India did not miss the services of Bumrah. Ashwin and Jadeja took 47 wickets between them as the hosts won the tie 2-1.
To Shami’s credit, he stepped up big time with the ball too, taking 9 wickets at an average of 28.22 when no other pacer took more than 3 wickets.