Jasprit Bumrah wanted to captain India on Ireland tour, Ruturaj Gaikwad was among BCCI's choices - Reports

Jasprit Bumrah has been named India’s captain for Ireland T20Is, while Ruturaj Gaikwad will be the Vice-captain.

After the West Indies tour, India will travel to Ireland for three T20Is before they start their campaign in the upcoming Asia Cup 2023. The BCCI announced India’s 15-member squad on Monday for the Ireland tour, with ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah making his return to the side after a wait of almost one year. Along with Bumrah, Prasidh Krishan, who was also suffering from injury, made his return to the team.

Not just a comeback, Bumrah has also been picked to lead the team against Ireland in the series, while Ruturaj Gaikwad has been named the vice captain of the team. Jasprit Bumrah played his last international match against Australia at home during a T20I series ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup. He underwent surgery in New Zealand and was at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for his rehab.

India were keen to give captaincy role to Ruturaj Gaikwad instead of Jasprit Bumrah – Reports

This is not the first time that Jasprit Bumrah will lead India at the international level. The pacer led the test side earlier against England in the fifth and final rescheduled test at Edgbaston last year in the absence of Rohit Sharma. Though, according to ESPN Cricinfo, the BCCI had plans to pick Ruturaj Gaikwad as the captain for Ireland tour to manage Bumrah’s workload. Adding to that, Gaikwad is also the captain of the Indian side that will play in the upcoming Asian Games 2023.

However, the pacer was keen to lead the team, which is why he was named captain of the side for the Ireland tour. The squad has players who are part of the Asian Games squad, like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, and Shahbaz Ahmed. All these players have had excellent IPL seasons recently.

India have picked up three spinners in Bishnoi, Sundar, and Shahbaz. One notable name in the squad is Sanju Samson, who is also part of the ongoing ODI series and the upcoming T20I series against the West Indies. The Indian board seems to want to give all these players some game time before the Asian Games, which is why they have gone for almost the same set of players and rested all seniors, including skipper Hardik Pandya.

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