Team India lost the first Test of the five-match Test series against England. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah claimed a fifer in the first innings. But, they won’t get his service for all five Tests as he is available for only three Tests due to workload management. However, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers, who also had to manage the workload of Dale Steyn during their active days, didn’t back the Indian team management’s decision to give Bumrah just three matches as well.

“He is probably the top bowler in the world in all formats right now. So, it’s very difficult to decide a way to rest him,” AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel. “But in my opinion, Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game. And this Test series probably would’ve been the one, in my opinion, to get him ready for all five Test matches.”

Citing Dale Steyn’s example, AB de Villiers said that Jasprit Bumrah should’ve ideally been rested in lesser-important T20Is and ODIs as well.

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“That’s what we used to do with Dale (Steyn). Rest him in lesser important T20 and ODI series and get him ready for the big Test series against Australia, England, and India away from home… New Zealand to a certain extent, depending on the rankings at that time,” he explained.

He even threw the word ‘mismanagement’ at the Indian team as he also questioned what led to the team taking such a call as well.

“So, I don’t know if it was mismanagement or perhaps because he recently got back from injury, sort of saw the IPL as the warmup phase. Maybe, went to the surgeon, who let him know, ‘You can’t play the five Test matches.’ So, I mean you got to respect that, and at the end of the day, it’s up to Team India to sort of manage him well. It doesn’t get bigger than that, guys, except for maybe the WTC final,” AB de Villiers concluded.