Bumrah must play the second Test come what may

Hindustan Times

6 hours ago

England won the first Test but Shubman Gill's India were not losers. Almost 500 runs in the first innings and close to 400 in the second innings was just an unbelievable performance from this young, inexperienced Indian batting line-up. Jasprit Bumrah was the sole Indian bowler who consistently posed a challenge to the England batters at Headingley (Reuters)
Every batter in this line-up is a T20 star, an impact player for their respective franchises. I also believe that T20 cricket is constantly working against your Test batting skills, so for this team to put up such an impressive Test batting performance, not once but twice, after an extensive 2-1/2 months of IPL cricket was just incredible.
It makes me proud of the cricket environment we have in which young cricketers come up the ranks having great T20 skills and exceptional ability for Test cricket at the same time.
India were unfortunate that on day five morning Leeds turned cold and the sun went behind the clouds, which meant the dry pitch wasn't getting drier and the cracks weren't widening.
Bumrah and Siraj bowled their hearts out but the pitch just went to sleep, and only woke up when there was a passing shower, and the sun finally came out in the afternoon.
This was why in that phase Prasidh Krishna was able to get the ball to move in the air to get Crawley out, and then got the ball to jag back to bowl Pope. If the pitch had reacted to Bumrah and Siraj like this in the morning, it would have been a different story for India.
But I am a bit concerned about India's immediate future in this series because despite getting five individual 100s and Bumrah taking five wickets in the first innings, England still managed to beat India.
India's late order collapses didn't help but they aren't a big issue for me. It's eventually about the final score; earlier, there were top-order collapses.
In both scenarios, India were still getting 400 runs, but earlier India's bowling was able to make the 400 runs count.
England chased 371 in the final innings quite comfortably, and that has to be quite disconcerting for India. The fact remains this bowling attack is not what it was four years back.
Bumrah's bowling performance in the second innings also threw light on the fact that in easy batting conditions he has reached a stage where putting in 30 overs with the same intensity twice in four days is just not possible anymore.
I also believe Siraj has reached a point of no return. I don't see him reaching the heights he did four years back.
No matter how the weather and the pitch conditions are for the second Test, India will have to go to Kuldeep Yadav, focusing only on the bowlers' inherent quality.
I was really disappointed with Jadeja's modest returns in the final innings. There may have been a dropped catch here and there, but in favourable conditions with a nice rough to work outside off, Jadeja toiled for 24 overs for just one wicket.
This is unbecoming of a senior lone spinner in the side who is on his fifth tour of England.
Shardul Thakur will go out and Kuldeep will come in for the next Test. Also, India cannot get too complacent about their batting after an inspiring batting performance at Headingley.
They may want to bolster their batting but still have some seam support, however negligible, and getting a batting all-rounder in Nitish Reddy may not be a bad idea.
He was phenomenal as a batter in Australia propping the lower order up, wasn't he?
Bumrah must play the second Test come what may, only because of how England chased down 371. Without Bumrah, India will have to get 500s to compete and that's an unfair expectation from this batting line-up.
As a bowler he has reached such heights that even a 40% fit Bumrah will make this Indian bowling attack look better than one without him.