As Team India gears up for a challenging five-match Test series in England—historically one of the toughest places for Indian cricket to succeed—one key decision by the management has left fans and experts scratching their heads: Jasprit Bumrah, widely regarded as the world’s premier fast bowler, will only feature in three of the five Tests.

This development comes despite Bumrah having played nearly the entire Indian Premier League (IPL) season for Mumbai Indians, raising eyebrows about how his workload is being managed. Head coach Gautam Gambhir has already confirmed the decision, but many are questioning why Bumrah isn’t being preserved for a full-strength Test campaign—especially in a marquee series like this one.

Among those voicing concern is former South Africa captain AB de Villiers, who knows a thing or two about managing elite pacers. During his playing days, de Villiers saw firsthand how South Africa carefully handled the workload of Dale Steyn—one of the all-time greats—and believes India should have taken a similar approach with Bumrah.

“He is probably the top bowler in the world in all formats right now. So, it's very difficult to decide a way to rest him,” De Villiers shared on his YouTube channel. “But in my opinion, Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game. And this Test series probably would've been the one to get him ready for all five matches.”

Drawing parallels to Steyn’s career, de Villiers emphasized the importance of resting bowlers in shorter formats to keep them fresh for the longer battles that truly matter.

“That’s what we used to do with Dale—give him a break during the less significant T20 and ODI series so that he was firing on all cylinders for the big Tests against Australia, England, and India, especially away from home. New Zealand too, depending on the rankings at the time.”

The former Proteas skipper didn’t hold back from hinting at possible "mismanagement" in the way Bumrah's availability has been handled.

“So, I don’t know if it was mismanagement or maybe it has something to do with his recent injury. Perhaps the IPL was seen as a sort of warm-up phase,” de Villiers speculated. “Maybe the surgeon told him he couldn’t play all five Tests. If that’s the case, you have to respect that. But at the end of the day, it’s on Team India to manage him wisely.”

He concluded by underlining just how monumental this Test series is in the broader context of international cricket.

“It doesn’t get bigger than this—except maybe a World Test Championship final.”

India has already lost the first test match in the series with Bumrah being wicketless in the 2nd innings after taking a 5-fer in the first innings, and now the remaining 4 tests looks like going into the dark clouds without your best pilot as Bumrah will play only 2 in them.