What will be the cricket equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo missing the FIFA World Cup? Former England pacer Steve Harmison made a bold call and compared the 31-year-old star Indian cricketer with the five-time Ballon d'Or winner ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Harmison claimed that India turning up for the mega event scheduled to take place in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without Bumrah will be like Portugal playing football's biggest event without Ronaldo in the squad.

For those unversed, Bumrah is a major injury doubt for the eight-team marquee event after suffering a back injury in the fifth Test against Australia last month at Sydney. The 31-year-old has not played any cricket since that event and his fitness status remains a doubt with just about a week remaining for the tournament to start.

However, Harmison claimed India should not replace Bumrah even if he is not fit to play the group stage.

"He's Jasprit Bumrah. For me, you can't replace Jasprit Bumrah anytime. And I mean, I would even go up to the morning of the final to take him that far because he's Jasprit Bumrah. He's the best in the world. That would be my take from an Indian point of view.

"It's like going to a football World Cup without your best striker, Cristiano Ronaldo. Fifteen years ago, you don't replace Ronaldo until you have to. That's what I imagine India will do with Bumrah. It's a 14-man squad. That's good enough to get me through the group games. We might get him by the semifinal, more than the semifinal. If he's not fit, we'll replace him just in case we have another injury. But he's Jasprit Bumrah," said Harmison on Talk Sports Cricket.

India has to submit their final squad for the mega event on Tuesday (February 11) after which changes can only be made pending approval from an ICC technical committee. Whether India can replace Bumrah or not, who is carrying an injury remains a matter of debate.

Harmison played 63 Tests and 58 ODIs for England and took 226 and 76 wickets respectively from his debut in 2009 to his last game in 2009.

Bumrah was in red-hot form in 2024 and finished the year with 86 wickets across formats which included a key role in India's 2024 T20 World Cup triumph for which he was given the Player of the Tournament (POTM) award. Bumrah took 71 wickets in 13 Tests in 2024. His bowling average (14.92) is the best for a bowler in a calendar year in history among bowlers to take more than 70 scalps.

Bumrah took 32 wickets in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) which is the most by an Indian bowler in an away Test series. The Indian pace bowling legend won the Sir Garfield Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year 2024.

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