Indian pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah will miss the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 due to back surgery according to latest reports. He may also miss the ICC World Test Championship final, should India qualify for it, which is scheduled to take place from June 7 at The Oval.
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Bumrah has not yet recovered from the back injury that kept him out of the ICC T20 World Cup last year.
Bumrah’s case is being treated urgently by the medical staff of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, who have suggested that he undergo surgery due to recurring niggles in his lower back that originally surfaced as a stress reaction last August.
A final decision on the next step is expected to be taken soon by the BCCI in coordination with the NCA and Bumrah, keeping in mind the ICC Cricket World Cup, scheduled to take place in India from October to November this year.
Bumrah has been waiting for a long time to make a comeback since suffering a back injury in August, which ruled him out of the Asia Cup.
Initially, the injury did not seem serious as he was named in India’s T20 World Cup squad in September and even played the last two T20Is against Australia on September 23 and 25. Three days later, Bumrah did not play the first T20I against South Africa and was taken for scans, which revealed a stress-related injury in his back.
He was rushed to the NCA, where scans confirmed that the injury was serious, ruling him out of the T20 World Cup, where India reached the semi-finals.
Bumrah resumed his rehab in November and started to bowl in mid-December. His progress seemed positive, and he was added to the white-ball series squad played in January more than a week after the original selection.
However, while taking up higher workloads during fitness drills in January, discomfort resurfaced, and scans revealed the development of a fresh niggle, which ruled him out of the Sri Lanka series and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
Indian team management and skipper Rohit Sharma want Bumrah to return to the side only after gaining full fitness, with Rohit warning against rushing the pacer back into the team.