The return of Jasprit Bumrah for the three-match one-day series against Sri Lanka was the biggest news on Tuesday (Dec 3). Bumrah has been India’s linchpin for almost seven years, but he missed the Asia Cup Twenty20 in September before making a brief appearance against Australia at Nagpur. He was ruled out of the ICC World Twenty20 in Australia. According to the BCCI the fast bowler who has taken 319 international wickets for India in 1893 overs has been declared fit by the Bengaluru-based National Cricket Academy. Bumrah was laid low by a serious back ailment. He was kept in cotton wool in order to give him a chance to fully rehabilitate himself for the four Test series against Australia set to start in Nagpur on February 9. India beat Bangladesh in the Two-Test series recently and is placed No 2 in the ICC World Test Championship cycle. A fit as a fiddle Bumrah will strengthen India’s attack, although he has taken only 14 of his 128 Test wickets at home. Clearly the spin friendly tracks will bring the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel into the picture against Australia, but Bumrah’s value as a speedster just cannot be discounted. In the last Test match he played against Sri Lanka in India 10 months ago, he took 5 and 3 wickets.