With no one more accepting of it than head coach Gautam Gambhir, the choice to exclude Jasprit Bumrah from India's Playing XI for the second Test against England in Birmingham is still subject to criticism. Considering Bumrah's workload management, he was given a break despite the series being 0-1 in favor of the opposition and the weeklong break between the first and second Tests. This decision confounded several former cricketers, including Dale Steyn and Ravi Shastri. The decision to have Bumrah play three out of the five Tests is the source of disagreement, though.

Gambhir spoke out on the subject. He insisted that the team's strategy remain the same. And it seems that this stubbornness is what got him into trouble. One viewpoint holds that Bumrah was given a break because they want him in good shape for the crucial Lord's Test. On day one at Edgbaston, the pitch didn't really perform. However, the pitch at Leeds wasn't very good either. And the outcome is clear to everybody. Considering the circumstances, would Bumrah not have been better positioned to play at Edgbaston in order to give India the best chance of avoiding a 0-2 deficit? Although it is impossible to say for sure, Kumar Sangakkara, the former captain of Sri Lanka, believes that Bumrah was necessary for this Test.

"Is it after a conversation with the players or the physiotherapists that the decision is made and who makes it? It's fascinating to know how the choice is being made." Is the Lord's Test more significant than the rest of the series? The future of the show is at risk. With five wickets down, it's likely that the score is slightly in England's favor on a fair day. On Sky Sports, he said, "So I would have expected the coach to have gone to Bumrah and said 'Yes, we thought you might play the 3rd and the 5th Test, but we're going 1 and 2. Take a look if you can play the third if you can, because then you've got two weeks off before the next one,'" he said on Sky Sports.

Sangakkara admits that there is some baggage.

The surprise in India's Playing XI wasn't just Bumrah. The team administration made three adjustments. Akash Deep took Bumrah's place, Nitish Reddy took Shardul Thakur's place, and Washington Sundar took Sai Sudharsan's place. Furthermore, it was unexpected that Karun Nair was switched from No. 6 to No. 3 in the batting order at Headingley. Sangakkara believes there's more to a camp than just switching and changing too much, which only indicates panic. With him, he firmly believes that Gambhir is shouldering the burden of India's subpar Test performance, which has resulted in seven losses since September of last year.

"It's more than simply a response to the previous test." There seems to be some discussion of the previous nine or ten games. Seven losses, one victory, and one tie. In order to reverse that trend, there is also a little bit of baggage. As a result, they were under a lot of pressure and were considering their options for this game, thinking, "alright, what can we do?" They then made all the modifications, Sangakkara added.

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