Ahead of the England tour, many expected Jasprit Bumrah to be the match-winning bowler for India in such conditions. However, as they say, life is so unpredictable; Bumrah suffered an injury in the game against Ireland.
It resulted in him missing out a place in T20I series followed by ODI and the opening two Test matches.
Finally, Jasprit Bumrah came out of injury to be available for the Trentbridge Test. Meanwhile, the return of Bumrah will see under-performing Umesh Yadav getting benched.
Jasprit Bumrah practising hard at nets:
Ahead of the third Test, the Indian pacers are working their skills out in the nets. Umesh Yadav was as usual in his nice run-up and throwing at the wicket. Meanwhile, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami were trying to improve their pace.
However, the sight of Jasprit Bumrah in the nets was the more pleasing one for the Indians. He finally removed his strip off from the finger. Though Bumrah was happy to bowl in the nets previously, he always bowled with a bandaid.
Surprisingly, he removed the strap on his finger indicating he is fit enough to be included on the side. The return of Jasprit Bumrah asks Kuldeep Yadav to make a way.
However, it was a bit unfortunate for Umesh Yadav to lose out a place in the side. He was sharp in his line and lengths at Edgbaston and knocked out Bairstow and Sam Curran as well.
The focus is on the batsmen:
India had always got the luxury of having legendary batsmen in their rankings. They have been the walls for lifting the Indian cricket, but of late, the mojo has been done and dusted.
The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Murali, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara failed to tackle Englishmen on four occasions so far. The middle-order that consists Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya also looked pretty weak in their defence.
The visitors need to set their sights fairly on the target at Trentbridge. At least a single hiccups can push them out of the series. The batsman troop has the work to do their best to yield the result in India’s way.