Speaking on Cricbuzz, Karthik responded to a fan’s question about Bumrah’s potential as India captain. He highlighted the importance of maintaining Bumrah’s fitness for crucial matches and cautioned that taking on the additional responsibility of captaincy could increase the risk of injury for the pace spearhead.
“Calm, cool, most importantly good maturity… but he’s a fast bowler. So how can we play him in all three formats? That is the BIGGEST question the selectors could have had,” Karthik explained, emphasizing the challenge of balancing Bumrah’s workload across all formats.
Karthik further elaborated on his stance, describing Bumrah as a “Kohinoor diamond” for Indian cricket, whose well-being must be carefully managed.
“Being a fast bowler, especially at Bumrah’s level, it is so important to protect him and play him in important matches. I keep saying this about Bumrah, he is like a Kohinoor diamond – we have to protect him, take care of him, and ensure that he lasts as long as possible. Because whenever Bumrah plays, in any format, he makes an impact. That’s what we want. To burden him with captaincy and then see him end up playing a lot of series and injuring himself would be a huge problem,” Karthik added.
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Bumrah has previously led India as a stand-in captain during the one-off Test against England at Edgbaston in 2022 and also captained India to a 2-0 series victory in a three-match T20I series against Ireland last year.
Despite his success in these limited captaincy stints, Karthik’s comments underline the importance of carefully managing Bumrah’s workload to maximize his effectiveness and longevity in international cricket.
