Bumrah is not out of the World Cup yet : Sourav Ganguly

Jasprit Bumrah sustained a back injury during the series against Australia and is currently under supervision at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Meanwhile, the All-India Senior Selection Committee named Mohd. Siraj as replacement for the remainder of the T20I series against South Africa, raising doubts if Bumrah would be available for the T20 World Cup in just more than three weeks of time. 

While there is no certainty on his fitness yet, Sourav Ganguly asked everyone not to jump the gun so quickly, stating that the speedster hasn’t been ruled out yet. "Bumrah is not out of the World Cup yet," Ganguly told the Xtra Time digital channel in Kolkata on Friday. 

But the former Indian skipper clearly stated that a decision regarding Bumrah will be taken in the "next two or three days" and he is keeping his “fingers crossed”.

Bumrah was traveling with the Indian squad but didn’t feature in the T20I against South Africa at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. He went for a scan there which revealed a stress-related injury in his back. According to ESPN Cricinfo, Bumrah underwent another scan on Thursday in Bengaluru and the report will be studied by independent medical consultants, whom BCCI hired for this purpose.

India have already played one marquee tournament – the Asia Cup – without Bumrah and are on the verge of playing a global T20 event without him. Bumrah’s ability to churn out yorkers like it was his stock delivery is perhaps unrivaled. India will be searching for answers in that direction and perhaps solving it once and for all ahead of the tournament.

According to a report on ESPN Cricinfo, the Rohit Sharma-led side will depart for Australia on October 6 - just a couple of days after the conclusion of the South Africa series. In all likelihood, Shikhar Dhawan will lead the ODI charge for Team India against South Africa, which is to run from October 6 to 11. 

The T20 World Cup squad will have their base in Perth and will play a practise match against Western Australia before taking on Australia and New Zealand in two more warm-up games in Brisbane as part of the official arrangement of the ICC.