ENG vs IND 2025: Jasprit Bumrah released from squad

Star pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been released from India’s squad for the fifth Test of the series against England.

The fifth and final Test of the series is underway at Kennington Oval, London. This means that Bumrah will not be able to take any further part in the match, even if the need of a substitute fielder arises. With him and Rishabh Pant both now gone, the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh, Shardul Thakur, Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Narayan Jagadeesan are the available bench options currently.

Why was Bumrah not picked for the fifth Test despite being fit?

Bumrah was fit and available to be playing the ongoing encounter. However, keeping his body in good shape and not putting extra stress on his physique meant that the management had to rest him for the final encounter of the series. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate also addressed the issue behind Bumrah being rested for the last match.

“We obviously want to wheel him out, but we also want to respect where his body’s at. And on the basis of that, we just felt that it wasn’t worth including him in the squad [XI for the Oval Test]. You know, he has bowled a large number of overs. I know it doesn’t always seem like that because he’s only played three Tests, and he only bowled in one innings in Manchester,” ten Doeschate said at the press conference after Day 1.

India’s updated squad for fifth Test: Shubman Gill (C), KL Rahul (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh, N Jagadeesan (WK)

Chris Woakes ruled out

Meanwhile, England’s Chris Woakes had taken the field on the first day, but suffered a shoulder stress while fielding a shot hit towards the boundary by Karun Nair. As Woakes performed a slide to pull the ball in, he dislocated his shoulder, post which he was taken off the field. Ahead of Day 2, he arrived at the venue with a plaster on, and the English team confirmed him to be ruled out for the remainder of the match.