Must go to great lengths
Bengaluru: Jasprit Bumrah’s possible absence from next week’s second Test against England in Birmingham will rob India’s bowling unit of control, not an ideal element to miss when the visitors are trying to go level at a ground where they have never won a red-ball match.
The passage between overs 65 and 82 of the first Test at Leeds, which England won by five wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, will offer further validation to that grim fact. England were 286/4 when India’s pace talisman ended that spell with overall figures of 19-3-57-0, and he was not summoned for another over.
Perhaps, skipper Shubman Gill wanted to preserve him for the second new ball which was due in 15 overs and it also aligned with India’s workload management plan for their premier pacer.
England were still 85 runs away from a win and some tight overs, probably dotted with a couple of wickets, would have set the stage perfectly for Bumrah’s return in the 80th over.
But by the time that mark arrived, England were 349/5, racking up 63 runs in 15 overs, in excess of four runs an over, and a mere 22 runs separating them from an incredible victory. It was beyond even Bumrah to salvage the situation. Now, India might just have to make peace with the reality of not having the 31-year-old in their ranks at Edgbaston.
Mohammed Siraj was distinctly unlucky in the second innings not to have a wicket despite hitting better lines, but his effort in the first essay left a lot to be desired when he eased the pressure Bumrah built from the other end while giving away plenty of boundary balls.
Siraj has considerable Test experience to find some quick remedy, but Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur -- India’s third and fourth pacers -- only have a combined experience of 16 Tests. They went over 6 and 5 runs per over across the first Test, and it reduced the impact of the wickets they took.
Prasidh, who had a five-wicket match haul at Headingley, was quite disappointing as he followed the hard lengths strategy that he adopted in Australia but England demanded much fuller lengths from him, and he could deliver the, only in periods.
Can he challenge England batters more meaningfully in Birmingham? Former India pacer Dodda Ganesh believes Prasidh can produce a heftier effort provided he makes some minor tweaks to his approach.
“Prasidh has always been a wicket-taker, but he needs to bowl with some consistency, and needs to focus on the areas he bowls. It will help him bowl more maidens especially when the ball gets older. He can’t bowl on both sides of the wickets,” Ganesh told PTI.
“In England, the ball swings around a bit because of the conditions. He just needs to watch Bumrah on how to bowl consistent lines, lengths. He just needs to concentrate more on the channel outside (off-stump), and he will be better,” he added.
“Shardul was picked because of what he has done in England on previous tours. I would give him another opportunity,” the former India wicket-keeper added.
