India pacer Jasprit Bumrah is likely to fly to New Zealand to undergo surgery for his back injury.
According to a Cricbuzz report, the medical team of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the managers of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) have finalised a surgeon named Rowan Schouten, who had worked on England pacer Jofra Archer.
The arrangements are being made on a war footing to have Bumrah, who has been out of action for the last five months, flown to Auckland at the earliest for the surgery.
Schouten, in the past, had worked with renowned orthopedic surgeon Grahame Inglis, who had operated upon a few New Zealand players, including Shane Bond — the bowling coach of Mumbai Indians, who is likely to have suggested Schouten’s name.
The report further said that Schouten had also assisted Inglis in the surgery of Australian pacer James Pattinson while he also handled Ben Dwarshuis and Jason Behrendorff’s surgery, who had also struggled with back issues.
The recovery time for Bumrah is somewhere between 20 and 24 weeks, which means he could miss the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 and the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) in London, should India qualify.
Significantly, Bumrah had last played for India in a T20I match against Australia at home on September 25, 2022 and has been rehabilitating at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru since then.
Earlier, the right-arm pacer was all set to make a return to competitive cricket against Sri Lanka in January 2023 however, he was ruled out later after failing to recover in time.
Meanwhile, it will also be a massive blow for Mumbai Indians, who will be eyeing to bounce back in the upcoming IPL season after a disastrous outing in the previous one where they had finished at the bottom of points table with just four wins from 14 matches.
Last month, India captain Rohit Sharma had said the team management wants to give Bumrah ample time to regain full fitness. “We are in constant touch with physios and doctors in NCA. The medical team will give him as much time as he wants,” Rohit had told reporters.