Jasprit Bumrah got India off to a dream start, making England great Stuart Broad’s prediction come true, on Day 2 of the first India vs England Test match at Headingley in Leeds. After India put on a towering 471 on the board thanks to centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (101), Shubman Gill (147), and Rishabh Pant (134), Bumrah dismissed England opener Zak Crawley in the very first over.
England’s response was delayed by about 40 minutes due to a light drizzle, which did more harm to the hosts than help. Under overcast conditions, Bumrah, quite expectedly, made the new ball talk. He kept Cawley honest by getting the ball to swing away from a good length before playing him on the angle on the last ball of the over.
Bumrah angled the ball in. Crawley, after being watchful for all the awaygoing deliveries in the over, shaped to play it through the onside, but the ball swung late. It caught the outside edge of Carwley’s closed bat face. Karun Nair, standing at first slip, took a good, sharp catch.
Bumrah almost did the same thing to England’s No.3 Ollie Pope but luckily for him, his outside edge was thicker and it went through the vacant slip cordon for a boundary. In the same over, Ben Duckett edged one that went inches away from Yashasvi Jaiswal’s grasp.
“Quite amazing. Bumrah has created two opportunities every over. He is the most valuable cricketer going around in world cricket across all formats,” said Dinesh Karthik in commentary.
Jasprit Bumrah makes Stuart Broad’s prediction right
Bumrah’s presence gives India a distinctive edge purely because of his ability to bowl match-winning spells. That is exactly why Stuart Broad, before the start of the second day’s play, advised everyone not to judge this Headingley pitch till Bumrah has bowled on it.
“Don’t judge a pitch till Jasprit Bumrah has bowled on it,” said Broad on JioHotstar.
“That’s quite a statement coming from Broad. This tells you the stature Bumrah has risen in world cricket,” replied Manjrekar, reacting to Broad’s assessment.
The discussion centred on the Headingley pitch because of its true nature and the performance of India’s rather inexperienced batting line-up. Yashavi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant went on to hit centuries after being invited to bat by Ben Stokes. If it wasn’t for a collapse on either side of Lunch break on Day 2 that saw India lose six wickets for 24 runs, then they would have easily gone past 500.