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, Yashasvi 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.
Former England Skipper Micheal Atherton has expressed the same as he has words of praise for the sensational Indian speedster and his role in this Indian squad.
Michael Atherton on Jasprit Bumrah’s workload management
Former England cricketer Michael Atherton has shared his thoughts on how he thinks India will manage Jasprit Bumrah’s workload in the ongoing five-Test series. Atherton reckons the hosts should play him in Rajkot and Dharamsala, especially because the former’s track is likely to be flat.
Bumrah has been India’s best bowler across two Tests and played an integral role in their series-leveling 106-run win over England in Vishakhapatnam. The right-arm speedster has bagged 15 scalps in two Tests at 10.66, including nine in Vizag, with six of them coming in the 1st innings. He has also sent down over 40 overs in both Tests.
Speaking to Sky Sports’ Nasser Hussain, Atherton reckons India will need Bumrah on what could be a flat surface in the third Test in Rajkot. However, he is also aware of the short turnaround ahead of the next Test. Elaborating that the hosts could rest the pacer in Ranchi, the 55-year-old claimed:
“You want your cracker jack bowler, who can open up the game when the conditions are flat. But then it’s a quick turnaround to Ranchi and then Dharamsala where you probably want your seamers to play as it’s a bit cooler,”
“I would’ve thought favorite for him is to play here and in Dharamsala. Depending upon how it goes here, they may look to rest him in Ranchi,”
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.