During his pre-match press conference on Monday (June 30), the Indian cricket team's assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate gave Indian cricket fans some good news and declared that Jasprit Bumrah is fit and available for selection for the second Test, which will start on Wednesday (July 2) at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham.

With India 1-0 down in the series, Bumrah is key to the team's hopes of making a comeback in the five-match series as the Shubman Gill-led side aims to create history and win a Test series on English soil for the first time in 18 years. However, Ten Doeschate declared some major concerns for India as Bumrah might not be included in the playing XI.

The Indian assistant coach stated that the team will stick to their plan of playing Bumrah is just three Tests. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar had revealed that Bumrah cannot play all five matches while naming the squad last month. The star pacer stated that it is a move taken to prolong his cricket career after discussions with his surgeon, who operated on his back in March 2023.

With Burmah available to play just three Tests, India face a tough call of choosing which matches to bench him in. While a gap of eight days between the first and second Test has given ample time for Bumrah to recover and play in Birmingham, the third Test at Lord's starts on June 10 with a turnaround of just three days. This essentially leaves India with a choice to play him either in Edgbaston or Lord's.

“He's available for the game, obviously. We know from the start he's only going to play three out of the five. He's had eight days to recover from the last Test. But given conditions, workload, and how we think we can best manage for the next four games, we haven't made a call on that.

“We're going to see what the other guys are doing with their workload as well. So technically, yes, he's available. But we haven't made a decision on whether he's going to play or not yet,” said Ten Doeschate while addressing the media.

“So if we feel like there's value in playing him in this Test, we'll make that call at the very last minute. But I'm talking about whether, and how, the pitch is going to play. Are we better off holding him back for Lord's and maybe Manchester or the Oval? So it's all those factors.

“But you've seen him train yesterday, he also trained a little bit today. It's not like he's not fit to play. It's just trying to fit those puzzle pieces to get the most out of him, and what we know we do have from him,” Ten Doeschate added.

Bumrah played all five games in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia and bowled over 150 overs but ended up suffering a back injury in the final Test, which forced him to miss more than three months of action, including India's 2025 Champions Trophy triumph.

Bumrah has already faced a heavy workload in the series, having bowled 43.4 overs in the Leeds Test, which was the most by a pace bowler from both teams in the match. The 31-year-old took a five-wicket haul in the first innings but went wicketless in the second.