Mohammed Siraj has “debunked forever this business of workload”, said India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar, questioning the concept by asserting that playing for the country should be enough to “forget the aches”, something that soldiers guarding the nation are doing routinely.

Siraj played all five Tests of the just-concluded drawn series against England and bowled 185.3 overs in total, picking up 23 wickets. However, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was available for only three of the games, skipping the must-win fifth Test at The Oval as part of his workload management.

Gavaskar, however, made it clear that his criticism was not directed at Bumrah, saying that his was a case of “injury management” more than anything else. “When you are playing for your country, forget the aches and pains. On the border, do you think that the jawans are complaining about cold? What did Rishabh Pant show you? He came out to bat with a fracture. That is what you expect from the players. Playing cricket for India is an honour,” said Gavaskar.

“You are representing 140 crore people and that is what we saw in Mohammed Siraj. I think Siraj bowled his heart out, and he debunked forever this business of workload. For five Test matches, non-stop he has bowled seven-eight over spells because the captain wanted him and the country expected of him,” said the former skipper.

The 76-year-old said workload management cannot come in the way of fielding the best available team. “If you are going to succumb to people who are talking about workload, you are never going to have your best players on the field for your country,” he said.

“I hope that the word ‘workload’ goes out of the Indian cricket dictionary. I’ve been saying that for a long time… And I think that is the one thing that we all should keep in mind that this workload is only a mental thing, not so much a physical thing,” added Gavaskar.