Former India pacer and ex-national selector Salil Ankola wants speedster Jasprit Bumrah to play both the remaining Tests against England in the five-match series. Ankola also feels Shubman Gill’s playing XI must have wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the must-win fourth Test starting at Manchester on Wednesday. Ben Stokes’s England are leading the series 2-1.

“If Bumrah is touring England as a team member, he definitely has to play the fourth Test; he has to play all the matches,” Ankola told mid-day on Friday.  
   
To manage his workload, Bumrah, 31, has played two out of the first three Tests in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, in which he claimed 5-83 in the first innings in the opening Test at Leeds and he bagged 5-74 and 2-38 in the third Test at Lord’s. He was rested for the second Test at Birmingham. 

‘Can’t choose matches’

Ankola also raised a query on how Bumrah was given the liberty to pick and choose matches. He said: “I don’t think anyone, even the greatest of the greats, starting from SMG [Sunil Gavaskar] to Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Ajinkya Rahane, Virender Sehwag and even fast bowlers like Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, you name a lot of players, nobody was given the liberty to pick and choose matches. Ultimately, you are playing for India.”