Aakash Chopra has hit back at Sanjay Manjrekar’s comments on Jasprit Bumrah, saying that the ace pacer is India’s ‘Kohinoor’ and should be allowed to pick and choose what Tests he can sit out to manage his fitness. The debate is raging after Bumrah played only three of India’s five Tests in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, as part of the BCCI medical team’s directions set months before the series began. Manjrekar, who before the start of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy had called for Bumrah to be the captain despite his availability, said on Saturday that the team should not adjust to his needs. The Mumbaikar remarked that Bumrah should not be the ‘frontline’ pick if he can’t play all Tests of a series, even going on to say that it was ‘poetic justice’ that India won the only two Tests in England where the quick didn’t feature. “I will be honest, I don’t think he will play all the Test matches. He is going to pick and choose. Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s not a moral or ethical debate, is what I think. If you have a player of that level available, play him whenever he can,” Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel, as quoted by Sportskeeda. Chopra added that bowlers are anyway rotated over the course of a five-Test series, and Bumrah can be, too, because there are replacements available. In England, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna did a good job in his absence. “Jasprit Bumrah, as a bowler, you can adjust the bowling combination very easily. It doesn’t make a difference. If Bumrah had been a batter, a No. 4 or an opener, and had said that he would play two matches and won’t play after that, then it’s a problem. Bowlers need to be rotated in any case in a series of three or four Tests,” Chopra said. “There is no bowler like Bumrah. Don’t push him forcibly towards early retirement because he is 24-carat pure gold. He is the Kohinoor diamond. The longer he plays, the better it is. I don’t think he will play too much Test cricket, but for however long he plays, I would say hold onto it,” he added.