Jasprit Bumrah’s hostile over to James Anderson has been in the news ever since India’s historic victory in the second Test against England at Lord’s.
The Indian speedster had unleashed a barrage of bouncers at England No. 11 batsman during hosts’ first innings, which triggered a verbal duel between the players of both teams.
After the end of play on Day 3, Anderson was seen exchanging a few words with Bumrah and other Indian players while walking back to the pavilion.
Ahead of the third Test, Anderson has opened up about the turn of events at Lord’s, which led to the heated exchanges between both sides.
"About halfway through the ten-ball over from Jasprit Bumrah, Virat Kohli walked up to the stumps to speak to me. He said "you can't be enjoying this, can you? He was right. I said to him "obviously not." I've faced a lot of short-pitched bowling. It is no secret I don't play the bouncer very well. Mitchell Johnson steaming in around the wicket in Perth was pretty tasty, for example," Anderson wrote in his column for the Telegraph.
"But on Saturday at Lord's the over from Bumrah was up there for intimidation. Everyone had been saying it was a slow wicket. When I walked out to bat Joe Root was at the other end. He said when it is banged in it is quite slow so you can see it quite easily. But the first ball I faced I didn't see at all. The first I knew of it was when it hit me on the head. Bumrah had obviously picked up his pace and from then on I just wanted to get through it unscathed and stay at the crease for Joe," he added.
Anderson admitted that emotion got the better of him and attention was drawn away from Root, who was batting brilliantly after slamming a fantastic century.
"I was angry at the end. The emotion got the better of me and I felt I had to say something. I felt bad for doing that because it drew attention away from Rooty celebrating an amazing inning as he came off the field. I apologised to him afterwards for that but the emotion got the better of me. It happens sometimes," he said.
"Potentially there was a bit of us wanting revenge on them when Bumrah batted on the last morning and we got carried away but we were genuinely trying to bowl them out. Sometimes you get it wrong as a bowling attack. Rooty has taken the brunt of the blame for it but as a bowling attack, we have to be good enough to take those last few wickets. We got the balance of bouncers and fuller balls wrong," he further remarked.
When Bumrah came out to bat in the second essay, England skipper introduced Mark Wood into the attack to show some chin music to the Indian tail-ender.
While Bumrah was on the helmet once, the ploy didn’t really work out as him and Mohammad Shami stitched an unbeaten 89-run stand for the ninth wicket to take the visitors to 298/9 (declared), stretching their overall lead to 271.
Further commenting on England's bowling tactics at Bumrah and Shami, Anderson said: "I felt every time I bowled at the stumps they blocked it or found a gap to squirt it into to get off strike. When that happens you go to the short ball. You have catchers out knowing they will take it on. It felt like the best wicket-taking option but it was definitely the period where we lost the game. Losing like that is as tough a loss as you can experience. We played four days of great cricket, put ourselves in a good position through lots of hard graft. To then have it turn around so quickly was hard to take. It was a reminder that one bad session can lose you a game of cricket. You have to play for five days unbelievably well, especially against a team like India."
Chasing 272 in the fourth innings, the hosts had to bat less than two sessions to save the Lord’s Test but they failed to do so as India’s pace-quartet demolished their batting line-up, bowling them out for 120 to seal the match by 151 runs.
(With ANI inputs)
