Dravid ‘hopeful’ Bumrah will make World Cup

India are “hopeful” that injured pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will still make next month’s T20 World Cup despite his withdrawal from the South Africa series, coach Rahul Dravid said on Sunday.

Bumrah missed Wednesday’s opening win over the Proteas and is currently under medical supervision for a stress fracture of the back. News reports have said the 28-yearold’s withdrawal from the Australia tournament was a certainty, but coach Dravid said a final decision had not yet been reached.

“As of now officially he is only ruled out for this series but we will see what happens over the next few days,” Dravid told reporters on the eve of their second T20I against South Africa, to be played in Guwahati tonight. “Obviously till he is officially ruled out, we will always be hopeful, not just as a team but also for Jasprit as an individual.” India begin their World Cup campaign in three weeks and Bumrah’s absence would be a blow to their prospects in the showpiece event. ‘Not Everything Will Be Perfect’ Curing undergoing rehab at the NCA, Bumrah made a comeback in the preceding Australia series where he played two matches and travelled with the team to Thiruvananthapuram for the 1st T20I against South Africa only to be ruled out ahead of the game.

To a large extent we manage to get everything. Not everything will be perfect. It happens, it’s part and parcel of the game, we are not the only team which suffers from injuries. “Obviously if they happen closer to big tournaments they can upset your plans a little bit. Everyone is making good efforts to minimise the injuries as much as possible,” Dravid defended their workload management. The former India skipper said it’s normal to have injury issues and added they really work hard with their sports science team to manage the players’ workloads. “I don’t think there is a team in the world which can say they don’t have injuries at all. It’s part of the game, you play the game a lot, you play it all the time, people will get injured, that’s the nature of the sport,” he said.