England dominated day two of the first Test against India, but were helped by a bowling lineup looking increasingly Jasprit Bumrah-dependent. Will the real Indian attack please stand up?
Shortly after lunch on day two of the first England-India Test, the signs at Headingley began to look ominous for the hosts. A spectacular Indian collapse of 7-41 notwithstanding, 471 remained an imposing total especially as the clouds rolled in and England’s innings was delayed by a brief shower.
On a wicket that had little in it for the bowlers, India lucked into the best bowling conditions of the Test thus far. The floodlights came on, the air cooled and they had the equivalent of a bazooka in their arsenal, as Jasprit Bumrah marked out his run-up.
Bumrah did deliver, opening Zak Crawley up "like a can of beans", as Dinesh Karthik put it, in the very first over. He could well have had Ben Duckett too in his opening burst, if not for a rare Ravindra Jadeja drop at backward point.
Bumrah’s excellence is well-documented, and the day he ceases to be so will be a sad one. But India’s efforts with the ball on day two were all too reminiscent of their most recent tour – Bumrah ramping up the pressure at one end, and his teammates unable to quite do the same at the other end.
It wasn’t quite “World XI at one end, Ilford Second XI at the other,” but the difference was stark enough for Mark Butcher, on commentary duty, to remark that it was like “two different sports”.
In Australia, India used nine bowlers across five Tests. Bumrah and Siraj were the only frontline bowlers to play all five, and India’s star finally broke down in Sydney, to the extent that India have decided he will not play all five on this tour. The big question for this bowling attack before the series began was how they would go about things for the Test(s) Bumrah would miss. Perhaps that question needs to be asked even during the Tests he plays.
In this innings, his first spell read 5-2-21-1. England’s score at the end of it? 47-1 in nine overs. When he went out of the attack, they collected another 58 runs in 13 overs with minimal jeopardy – Ollie Pope survived one lbw shout thanks to the umpire’s call. Mohammed Siraj was erratic with the new ball and it didn’t take long for the diminutive Duckett to latch on to Prasidh Krishna’s naturally shorter length.
By tea, England had motoring along to 107-1 in 24 overs. Inevitably, Shubman Gill looked to Bumrah for a five-over burst to kick off the third session – and his spearhead delivered by getting Duckett to play on, and finding Ollie Pope’s outside edge only for Yashasvi Jaiswal to drop a regulation catch. Siraj did rally after tea though, beating Joe Root outside the off stump thrice in an over and even trapping him in front, only for the decision to be overturned.
While his improvement helped keep a lid on the scoring for a brief period, it didn’t take long before Pope and Root were able to milk Krishna and Shardul Thakur. Jadeja, the lone spinner, found some turn early on and kept things tight, as was expected – but naturally gave India little wicket-taking threat.
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Pre-series, the argument could be made that India’s attack would outperform England’s on the flattish surfaces that would almost inevitably be dished out. This, of course, held true if India went in with five bowlers. They did so on paper, but Shardul Thakur did not bowl until the 40th over. Even when he did, he sent down three overs, at the cost of 23 runs. Overall, India carried over a worrying pattern from Australia – two bowlers, Siraj and Bumrah, accounted for 55 per cent of overs in what was nominally a five-bowler attack.
It wasn’t until Bumrah came back for a final burst before the close of play, that India got another breakthrough. Between his first and second post-tea spells? 67-0 in 13 overs.
By stumps, England were 209-3, and scoring (by their standards) at a relatively sedate 4.3 runs per over. Bumrah had three wickets, two catches dropped off his bowling and the wicket of Harry Brook off a no-ball. The rest of India’s attack between them went off the field with one marginal lbw call to show for their efforts.
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Their batting may not be a worry in these conditions, as the top order showed, and lower-order collapses of this magnitude will also be rare. But if the extent of their wicket-taking threat is to bombard their hosts with Bumrah for as long as possible, it only incentivises England’s preparation of batting-friendly tracks for the remainder of the series – shut up shop against Bumrah, and the rest of the attack is there for the taking.
This particular Test remains evenly poised, but day two displayed a trend India must nip in the bud, either through team selection or more concerted plans. It could get ugly otherwise.
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