Why is Jasprit Bumrah not playing India vs Sri Lanka ODI series?

Indian ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah will miss the three-ODI away series against Sri Lanka, which begins on Friday, as he continues his much-deserved break from cricket. The right-arm quick was last seen in action at the 2024 T20 World Cup where he won India the final with his superb death bowling.

In India's celebrations after the final, Virat Kohli called him the "eighth wonder of the world" and a "once-in-a-generation" bowler, urging the stakeholders to let him choose which games he wants to play so India can elongate his career.

India's new head coach Gautam Gambhir seconded that before a three-T20I series against Sri Lanka, which Bumrah missed as well.

"I've said it before, workload management for someone like Jasprit is important," Gambhir had said. "He is one rare bowler that anyone would want. You want him to play important games. That's why the workload management for not just him but fast bowlers is important."

The T20 World Cup came like a second peak for Bumrah. He had suffered a serious injury in 2022 and took months to recover from it, missing a T20 World Cup and countless bilaterals but came back stronger and, somehow, an even better bowler.

India's playing 11 without Jasprit Bumrah

As the comments from Kohli and Gambhir confirm, India know that it is impossible to replace Bumrah in the team. However, this series gives the team a good chance to test youngsters and see which of the remaining senior players can take the responsibility of leading the attack in the spearhead's absence.

The team has recruited the likes of Khaleel Ahmed and IPL 2024 breakout star Harshit Rana for the series. But the attack will be driven by familiar faces Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh.

India's 11: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj.