Jasprit Bumrah’s return boosts India with Bazball’s ego bruised

A tight turnaround of just two off days and India and England are back at it in London this week, meeting at Lord’s for the third Test match with the series level at 1-1 following Shubman Gill and his team drubbing Bazball into the Birmingham dirt courtesy a record 336-run victory on Sunday. 

Gill, who stamped his authority on that win with 430 runs in the match, singled out his pace bowlers for doing a splendid job and in truth that win – India’s first at Edgbaston in nine attempts – would not have been possible without the 17 English wickets shared by Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj. In the absence of the No 1 Test bowler in the game, Siraj took 6/70 in England’s first innings and Akash 6/99 in their second to end with a match haul of 10. 

On a pitch that both teams found surprising, the pair of Siraj and Akash doing the bulk of the damage, crucially using the small windows of opportunity provided by the new ball, was seismic. At Lord’s, England’s coach and captain are hopeful of a more sporting surface with Brendon McCullum asking for a pitch “with plenty of life in it” after the very Asian 22 yards doled out in Birmingham, which played into India’s hands. 

But a pitch with more in it for the bowlers should also suit India better, given the return of Jasprit Bumrah after two weeks of rest and the success of Siraj and Akash in the last game. This pair out-bowled England’s quarter of pacers at Edgbaston and was far superior with the new ball and second new ball, so if England assume that by getting a spicier surface at Lord’s it would benefit them, they should be warned. The more bowler-friendly the pitch, the better it would be for India in their current state. 

Gill confirmed after the Edgbaston win that Bumrah will play at Lord’s, and so he should be a direct swap for Prasish Krishna who managed one wicket from 27 overs during the second Test. Karun Nair is likely to get the backing at one-down for at least this match, which leaves the question of whether India need three allrounders again. 

Ravindra Jadeja’s twin fifties in Birmingham mean that he cannot be touched. Washington Sundar bowled 20 overs for returns of 1/101 on an unresponsive surface and contributed scores of 42 and 12 not out. Nitish Reddy’s gentle medium pace had no impact, even though he can point to a tough chance grassed by Rishabh Pant, and with the bat he managed two runs in two innings. Sufficed to say, India won despite Reddy’s no-show as an allrounder, so do they need him at Lord’s? 

England have bigger problems. In Birmingham, their four pace bowlers managed nine wickets to Akash’s 10. It is unforeseeable that the trio of Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue all play at Lord’s. Gus Atkinson has been added to the squad and Jofra Archer is an option that England will strongly consider, but neither quick has significant match time behind them. To pick Atkinson and Archer would be a gamble, no doubt, but them gambling is a big part of Bazball’s ethos, isn’t it? 

Which brings us to the mental makeup of the two captains. Gill, aged 25, has in his first two Tests as captain amassed 585 runs. He arrived in England and stated his intent of being the ‘best batter’ of the series and so far, he’s walked the talk while showing that the burden of captaincy hasn’t impacted his batting. Scores of 147, 269 and 161 points to a young cricketer with an insatiable appetite for runs, and one who has gleefully accepted Bazball’s need for batting-friendly surfaces. 

In the other corner, Ben Stokes is averaging 19 with the bat in his third year of captaincy and his struggles to Jadeja have become a great cause for concern, even if the Bazball ego won’t admit it. He has been a batsman on the decline since Covid struck and has only one Test century in the past three years. What has masked Stokes’ diminishing returns with the bat is his captaincy and aura within this team, but the time has come for England’s talismanic leader to prove his worth with the bat. 

England playing 11: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Zak Crawley, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Shoaib Bashir

India likely playing 11: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Karun Nair, 4 Shubman Gill (capt), 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Akash Deep, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj