Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and India player Murali Kartik has opined on India’s playing XI for the fifth Test against England, which started on Thursday, July 31, at The Kennington Oval. However,  India made four changes, with Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep, and Prasidh Krishna coming in place of Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, and Anshul Kamboj as well.

In a video shared by Cricbuzz on Friday, August 1, Kartik said:  “I’m a bit surprised that Arshdeep’s name didn’t come up. I can understand Kuldeep’s case because throughout the series everyone’s been talking about Kuldeep, Kuldeep, Kuldeep. But, when both Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja scored centuries and bowled as well, from a balance point of view it becomes very difficult to bring Kuldeep in. But why not Arshdeep? I still don’t understand that.”

“First, he’s very strong. Second, he’s very fit. And third, I feel that the left-arm variety, especially in these conditions, someone who can swing the ball… Today, whenever Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes bowled up front, look how difficult it was for the batters. From that point of view, I felt maybe if Bumrah wasn’t playing, Arshdeep could have been given a chance. But that didn’t happen,” he again added.

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“Since Rishabh Pant wasn’t there, a batsman was needed in his place. So it felt good that Karun Nair got another chance in the middle order because he was talked about before the last Test match in the press conference. It seemed like he would play and then it turned out he didn’t. So the captain gave him a chance, showed faith in him, and I think today he lived up to it with the way he batted in the middle order. And when there was so much on offer for the bowlers, he batted really well throughout the day and is still unbeaten,” he further shared.

However, Murali Kartik also shared his thoughts on Jasprit Bumrah’s exclusion from the fifth and final Test, which was due to workload management as well. On the eve of the match, July 30, captain Shubman Gill had said that a final decision on Bumrah’s availability would be taken on the morning of the game as well.

“Look, Bumrah’s situation is quite interesting. After the first match, he didn’t play the second one even though there was a gap of seven to eight days. Everyone was asking why he didn’t play when India was trailing 0-1, and most people, including myself, believed that since there was enough time, it felt like he was targeting the Lord’s Test, and that’s why he skipped the second match,” Kartik shared.

“Now here, when he didn’t bowl on the last day and the day before that, and there was a three-day break, I was thinking that with a five-day break coming up, why can’t Bumrah play? And I will say this again. Sometimes medical personnel give their opinion based on their medical knowledge, but what you feel inside, no physio or doctor can fully understand or explain. That becomes really important, especially when you want to play a Test match, especially when you’re playing for India, and especially when the series is on the line,” he stated.

“But what someone is feeling internally and what the medical team is feeling, and what everyone else is feeling, is very hard to figure out. And when Bumrah didn’t play, it felt like it was already expected. You start to convince yourself that yes, it was expected, because it had been said earlier that he would play only three out of the five Tests, not more than that,” Murali Kartik concluded.