Jasprit Bumrah has been rested from the fourth Test against England beginning on February 23 in Ranchi. KL Rahul, who missed the second and third Tests, is set to miss the fourth Test as well, while his participation in the final Test in Dharamsala is subject to fitness.
The decision to give Jasprit Bumrah a break has been made keeping his workload in mind – he’s bowled 80.5 overs in the first three Tests – with an IPL season coming up followed closely by the 2024 T20 World Cup beginning on June 1. There was speculation that Bumrah was going to be rested for the third Test in Rajkot but, with the series level at 1-1, he eventually played the fixture.
Jasprit Bumrah, the current World No 1 fast bowler of our times, completed the job that he had begun in England’s first innings as India weathered a predictably ferocious fourth-innings challenge from a team that never knows when it is beaten, to close out a 106-run victory in Visakhapatnam and square an enthralling series at 1-1 with three Tests to come.
Jasprit Bumrah’s figures of 3 for 46 in 17.2 overs were less spectacular than his first-innings six-for, but the timing of his breakthroughs was everything on a fraught fourth day – in particular, his priceless extraction of Jonny Bairstow on the stroke of lunch, a dismissal that capped a five-wicket session for India and left England’s chase with too far to run, having busted out of the blocks with now typical gusto.
Sensational Jasprit Bumrah’s masterclass bowling gave India series levelling victory at Vizag
A sensational Jasprit Bumrah produced a masterclass with the old ball to pick up his best Test figures in India and bowl England out for 253, giving India the upper-hand at the end of the second day at Vizag. Bumrah’s 6/45 all came with the ball starting to reverse swing. He turned the game around since then to keep England from pushing ahead. The visitors had started well with opener Zak Crawley’s quickfire 76, which included four fours in an over off Bumrah with the new ball.
After a 59-run opening stand, Kuldeep Yadav had Ben Duckett caught at silly point with some extra bounce coming into play. But Crawley, bringing his long reach into play, resorted to counterattacking. He slog swept a six and then drove confidently down the track as well to put Ashwin off and brought up a well-deserved fifty in quick time.
Just as he was threatening to make it a lot worse for India, a bowling change worked wonders with Axar Patel striking almost immediately, getting the aggressive Crawley to miscue a big hit. Shreyas Iyer, running behind, took a good catch on the offside.
After that it was all Bumrah, as the ball began to move around a touch. He first worked over Joe Root and had him nicking to first slip. That sequence of balls was bettered soon after as he thundered a 141.7 kph yorker past a well-set Ollie Pope to splatter the stumps. It was the third wicket lost for 22 runs for England before Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes saw off the period of play before Tea.
But just as another stand was budding, Bumrah came back after the break to have Bairstow caught well at slip by Shubman Gill. In this period, he had some help from the other end with Kuldeep Yadav spinning one past Ben Foakes’ defence and having Rehan Ahmed caught at midwicket, with Gill pouching another sharp chance.
At 182/7, England were looking down and out before Stokes combined with Tom Hartley to counterattack the spinners. The duo added 47 in quick time forcing Rohit Sharma to turn towards Bumrah again.
The pacer delivered once again leaving Stokes bemused with one skidding through before Hartley went swinging and edging to give Gill his fourth catch of the innings. He wrapped it up by trapping James Anderson LBW to finish with figures of 6/45, to cap off an innings where he became the fastest Indian bowler to 150 Test wickets. Rohit and Jaiswal saw off the small period before Stumps unscathed.
That Bumrah spell offset some of India’s mistakes with the bat in the first innings that had seen them being bowled out below 400. At the start of the day, Yashaswi Jaiswal scored more than half of India’s first innings but England managed to chip away at the other end to bowl them out for just 396.
If this spell in the first innings was not enough when the ball started reversing on docile Day 4 pitch in the afternoon, Jasprit Bumrah gave another masterclass to English batters who in pursuit of 399 lost their way to masterclass bowling from this witty Indian bowler prime example being Ben Foakes dismissal on a slower ball with change in pace having the batter caught and bowled ending the partnership that to some extent threatened India’s winning chances only to make India win a test match and draw level the series 1-1 with his 9 wicket overhaul.
In addition to his 9 wicket haul at Vizag, Jasprit Bumrah has also grabbed 6 wickets in the first test which India lost at Hyderabad and with 15 wickets stands highest wicket taker in the series till date.
This knack of picking wickets on any kind of surfaces from this Indian sensation has garnered praises from all the experts across the globe. But due to ever continuity of cricket that India plays it is possible that the Rahul Dravid led management seeing the packed schedule for the Indian team might give Jasprit Bumrah rest in the 4th Test at Ranchi depending on the result at Rajkot ahead of 5th test at pace friendly Dharamshala.
Bumrah ripped the game open on Day 2 on a flat surface in Vizag. He dismissed the likes of Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, and Ben Stokes to give India a lead of 143. The performance also propelled the 30-year-old to the top of the ICC Test bowling rankings. Both India and England are tied at 1-1 at the moment but like to make amends by taking lead at Rajkot and India would believe taking lead in the third test match starting 15th would give them the luxury to rest their star bowler Jasprit Bumrah.
However Jasprit Bumrah played the third test at Rajkot where on docile and flat batting wicket produced immaculate spells which was instrumental in India’s lead over England after 3 tests. Jasprit Bumrah added to his tally of 15 wickets and now stands on top list wicket takers in the series with 17 wickets. The Ranchi pitch supposedly being a spinners paradise Indian management considering future assignments decided to rest Jasprit Bumrah for the 4th test.
Former South African speedster Dale Steyn has supported this decision from Indian management to rest Jasprit Bumrah and expressed his views on the same.
South African speedster Dale Steyn supports Indian Sensational Speedster Jasprit Bumrah rest in 4th Test at Ranchi.
Former South African pacer Dale Steyn feels Jasprit Bumrah is being managed well by the Indian team management, considering the amount of cricket played by them.
Bumrah has been in scintillating form with the ball, leading the charts with 17 wickets in the ongoing India-England five-Test series. With the hosts leading the series by a margin of 2-1, the ace pacer has been rested for the crucial fourth Test at Ranchi as part of workload management.
In an interview with TOI, Steyn was asked about India managing Bumrah’s workload, to which he said:
“I don’t know how his workload is going right now. I suppose being an Indian player there is going to be a lot of workload. There is a lot of cricket in India these days. The Indian team is playing a lot of cricket and people want to play against them. They are traveling most of the time. So, there is a huge percentage of the bowlers who will be bowling a lot of overs. Bumrah could be one of those guys. But he is being managed quite well.”
Steyn further praised Bumrah and added that the think tank managed the workload well with proper communication.
“There is a great crop of fast bowlers India currently has in Shami, Siraj, and Bumrah. There is a heap of fast bowlers coming through. I think they manage them well. There is good communication with Bumrah himself about what he wants to do, when he wants to play and when he takes time off. It seems like India really doesn’t miss him because the stepped-in bowlers are up to the standards. It is a very good thing about Indian fast bowling,” Steyn added.
Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah’s pace-bowling partner, Mohammed Siraj, was rested for the second Test and returned in style in the third match with a four-wicket haul in the first innings.
India have also drafted Bengal pacer Akash Deep into the squad along with Mukesh Kumar for the upcoming fourth Test in Ranchi, starting on February 23.During the ongoing England series, Jasprit Bumrah became the fastest Indian and second-fastest Asian pacer to scalp 150 Test wickets.
India leads the series 2-1 heading to Ranchi for the 4th Test starting 23rd February and will hope despite Jasprit Bumrah’s absence carrying on the winning momentum from the past 2 test matches India once again will seal the series at Ranchi itself making Dharamshala test a mere formality.
India now lead the five-match series 2-1 after a record 434-run victory in Rajkot, and they will have to find a way to make up for Bumrah’s absence. He’s the leading wicket-taker in the series with 17 wickets at 13.64 apiece. He was the Player of the Match in India’s win in the second Test in Visakhapatnam, where he took 9 for 91 across both innings.