Jasprit Bumrah will miss the second India vs England Test in Birmingham starting on July 2, sources confirmed to NDTV. The star fast bowler, who took five wickets in the first innings of the first Test in Leeds, will not play the second Test as part of workload management. There has been no official confirmation regarding the same. Bumrah’s absence is bound to come as a big blow to the Indian cricket team as the other bowlers lacked the fire-power in the first Test. While Bumrah took the first five-wicket haul of the series, Prasidh Krishna was expensive while Mohammed Siraj could not get enough wickets. Krishna’s figures were 3/128 in 20 overs and in the second innings it was 2/92 in 15 overs. Mohammed Siraj’s figures were 2/122 in 27 overs in the first innings and 0/51 in 14 overs in the second.
Compared to Bumrah’s figures of 5/140 from 43.4 overs at an economy rate of 3.20, the rest struggled to match his impact. Fast bowling all-rounders Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna combined to return with figures of 9/482 from 92 overs, a massive chasm.
Ahead of the series it was decided that Bumrah will play only three of the five Tests against England. The second Test starts on July 2 in Birmingham, and there is a little gap after that as the third Test starts on July 10 in Lord’s. Bumrah is likely to be available for the third Test.
Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh are the two other specialist pacers in the squad. Medium pace allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is another option. Most indications point towards left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh replacing Bumrah in the XI. But again, no one could confrm the development. While Arshdeep has not played any Test, he has ODI and T20I experrience. In T20Is, he is India’s all-time highest wicket-taker with 99 scals in 63 games. Shardul Thakur may also be dropped for Reddy to add more batting muscle.
