Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra criticized India’s bowling in the opening Test match against England, which the home team lost by five wickets at Leeds, Headingley on Tuesday. Barring Jasprit Bumrah, all the Indian bowlers looked toothless and failed to provide support to the pack leader.
Chopra noted that Ravindra Jadeja was not up to the mark, with either bat or the ball and more was expected of him. The experienced all-rounder could only accumulate 36 runs across both innings and managed a solitary wicket in the second innings.
Furthermore, Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj failed to make an impact with the ball.
“You will understand it in two parts. One is Bumrah, who is doing incredibly well and picks up a lot of wickets, but what happens when he doesn’t take wickets? You expect Ravindra Jadeja to do a little more on the fifth day. There will be a bit more bite, turn, and wickets. Something would happen, but it didn’t happen. Ravindra Jadeja, bowling and batting, hasn’t really lived up to it,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
Meanwhile, Shardul Thakur scored a total of five runs in the Test match and took two wickets in the second innings. The renowned commentator highlighted that Thakur’s second innings wickets were lucky.
“Shardul Thakur picked up two wickets for sure, but when you look at those wickets, you say they were lucky wickets. The problem is that Shardul Thakur was playing, but was he playing? Hardly batted, you can count those two wickets if you wish, but he bowled a limited number of overs and was very expensive in whatever he bowled,” he observed.
Chopra noted that the rest of India’s bowling looked mundane when Jasprit Bumrah was not bowling.
“I feel slightly scared the more I talk about it. If this is our bowling attack with Bumrah, the opposing team then starts respecting and playing out Bumrah, that they would play Bazball against someone else and tire him and take him out of the attack, Jassi being there is great, but what would happen if he isn’t there, as the rest of the attack looked extremely ordinary,” he said.
The former Delhi player added India’s bowling is over-reliant on the shoulders of Jasprit Bumrah.
“The bowling is too reliant on Bumrah. I don’t see much scope for improvement in this setup. The truth is that it seemed like we played this match with nine or 10 players,” Chopra observed.
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.
