England’s tactics of hurting India tail-ender Jasprit Bumrah in the second Test at Lord’s backfired badly as he went to stitch an unbeaten 89-run stand for the ninth wicket with Mohammad Shami to script the visitors’ 151-run victory.
During England’s first innings, Bumrah had bowled a barrage of bouncers to James Anderson, which triggered England skipper Joe Root to do the same when the Indian speedster came out to bat in the second essay.
Instead of continuing with Anderson, Root introduced Mark Wood into the attack to show some chin music to Bumrah.
While Bumrah was on the helmet once, the ploy didn’t really work out as the Indian tail-enders took the team to 298/9 (declared) in the second innings, stretching their overall lead to 271.
Ahead of the third Test, Anderson took a jibe at Root’s plans for Bumrah at Lord’s, saying that the emotions got the better of the England captain.
“When Joe touched on getting a few things wrong, I think, potentially, when Bumrah came in, he brought Mark Wood on and took me off. That’s the sort of thing he is talking about getting the emotion get the better of him. That was a sort of – trying for him to have a taste of his own medicine type of thing, rather than trying to get him out.
“You could just keep me on and normally see if he plays any big shot or anything like that, whereas he went with Mark Wood straightaway,” James Anderson said while speaking on the Tailenders podcast.
On Day 5, the tourists slipped to 209/8 in the first hour of the morning session. India's lead was only 182 at that point and the hosts were looking in a commanding position.
However, Shami (56*) and Bumrah (34*) changed the course of the game with their unbeaten partnership.
Lauding the India team for using the emotion in the right manner, Anderson said: “I thought they had a day as well. Chances just dropping either side of the fielders, dropping short, play and misses. On another day, one goes to hand and it’s a different story. But, all in all, it seemed that everything was against us that morning.”
“India are a passionate side. They use emotion differently from how we use it. They channel it well. We saw that on the last day. So I think that’s something we have got to think about going into the last three games,” he added.
The third Test will be played at Leeds from August 25.
