"Above My Pay Grade": Jasprit Bumrah's Blunt Take On Not Being Considered For Captaincy

Team India is ready to face Sri Lanka in a white-ball series, which will kick-start from Saturday with a three T20I matches. After the retirement of skipper Rohit Sharma from the shortest format, there was a lot of chatter regarding a perfect replacement for the captaincy. As it appeared, all-rounder Hardik Pandya was looking like an obvious choice but the newly-appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar named batter Suryakumar Yadav as the captain for the T20Is against Sri Lanka.

After the announcement, some discussions are going on about star pacer Jasprit Bumrah not being considered for the position of the captain. Bumrah, who played a vital role in India's victory at the T20 World Cup 2024, opened up about the situation and gave a fiery response. 

"I cannot go to the team and tell, now you have to make me captain. It is above my pay grade. I feel the bowlers are the smart people, as we have to get the batters out. We are always fighting the odds as the ground are shorter, the bats are better. I don't remember any article or technology coming to swing the ball a lot more. People enjoy the ball being thrown around and enjoy sixes being hit," Bumrah said on the Indian Express Adda.

"Because bowlers are doing the hard job. They are not hiding behind a bat. They are not hiding behind a flat wicket. When you lose a game, bowlers are blamed. It is a hard job. I take a lot of pride doing that job. You have to face a lot of challenges. Because of these challengers, bowlers find new ways to succeed. Fighting the odds make you a lot braver, leadership needs you to be brace. We have seen Pat Cummins doing really well. I have seen Wasim Akram captaining. Kapil Dev and Imran Khan have won a World Cup.