Former Indian fast bowler Varun Aaron believes England batters were able to find a way to keep Jasprit Bumrah at bay in the second innings of the opening Test. England won the first Test of the series by five wickets after successfully chasing down 371 runs in the fourth innings.
While Bumrah returned with impressive figures of 5-83 in the first innings, he went wicketless in the second essay after bowling 19 overs. Aaron noted that English batters adopted a sedate approach in the second innings against Bumrah and the Indian pack leader looked desperate for the wickets.
Bumrah was right on the money in the opening hour of the fifth day’s play along with Mohammed Siraj but the duo could not take any wickets.
“Most importantly, I think England have figured out a way to play Jasprit Bumrah. If you see his last couple of spells, there were quite a few half-volleys. There was a short ball here or there which they could score off, which you generally don’t see Bumrah give,” the former India pacer said on Star Sports show Follow the Blues.
“As a bowler, I can tell you a bowler generally bowls those kind of balls only when he is desperate, and that also shows that the guys from the other end aren’t really providing wickets. So Bumrah has to go the extra mile to bowl that wicket-taking ball, which can sometimes give runs,” he added.
The former pacer highlighted that England batters adopted an approach of playing the line against Bumrah, which prevented the ace fast bowler from producing edges.
“The biggest threat to their batting lineup is Bumrah. I think the way they are showing to play Bumrah is to play the line. They aren’t prodding anything that’s outside the off-stump, which is making it really difficult for Bumrah to get edges. They are just playing the line and waiting for the ball which comes into them, and that puts pressure even on somebody like Bumrah,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, during the opening Test, Bumrah went past Wasim Akram’s tally of wickets in SENA countries. Bumrah also became the first Asian fast bowler to take 150 scalps in SENA.
“Bumrah is a champion bowler. He is a genius. If any bowler crosses any of Wasim Akram’s records, it means he is already one of the greats in the world when it comes to Test cricket, ODI cricket, or even in T20 cricket. He got the batters out with his bowling. The batters didn’t play bad shots,” he said.
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.
