Jasprit Bumrah's training picture comes as a big boost for Team India ahead of ODI World Cup

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah posted a short video on Instagram with snippets of him returning back to full-fledged training and bowling on Tuesday. The 29-year-old can be seen rolling his arms over and delivering at full throttle as he gears up to return to the Indian squad ahead of the highly-anticipated ICC Men’s ODI World Cup in October-November this year.

Bumrah last featured for the Indian team during the T20I series against Australia in September 2022. He has had to sit out of important assignments such as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Border-Gavaskar Trophy and even the World Test Championship (WTC) final last month due to his injury concerns. Bumrah was sidelined for the entire length of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 as he underwent rehabilitation to recover optimal fitness.

The pacer’s return to the Indian squad will add significant quality and experience to the bowling unit. India last won an ICC tournament back in 2013 and an arguably inefficient bowling unit let them down in the T20 World Cup last year. They conceded runs aplenty in the WTC summit clash as well and Bumrah’s return will add that much-needed X-factor to the Indian pace unit.

Bumrah has scalped 121 wickets in 72 ODIs at an economy rate of 4.64. He has seven four-wicket and two five-wicket hauls to his name. His record in ODIs at home is particularly impressive, having taken 40 wickets in 28 matches at a bowling average of 30.30. On flat decks, his pace and innate wicket-taking ability will be of great help to skipper Rohit Sharma.