ENG vs IND: Will Bumrah play the remaining 4 Tests? India coach Gambhir opens up after Headingley defeat

Jasprit Bumrah’s wicketless second innings at Headingley exposed India’s over-reliance on him. Despite a five-for in the first, his struggles highlighted the bowling unit’s frailties,echoing a similar pattern from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Following India’s defeat in the first Test against England at Headingley in Leeds, Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for the remaining four matches of the five-Test series became one of the major talking points.

Team India’s dream of kicking off the England Test tour on a good note was dashed after surrendering the victory to England by 5 wickets. With a target of 371, Ben Duckett (149) and Zak Crawley (65) laid the foundation with a solid 188-run stand for the opening wicket before a 73-run unbeaten partnership between Joe Root (53*) and Jamie Smith (44*) for the sixth wicket sealed the victory for the hosts.

Shardul Thakur led the attack with figures of 2/51 in his spell of 10 overs, while Prasidh Krishna picked two wickets but conceded 92 runs in 15 overs. Ravindra Jadeja, the leader of the spin bowling attack, picked the only wicket of the match in the second innings, while conceding 104 runs in 24 overs.

Jasprit Bumrah’s rare off-day exposes India’s bowling

Jasprit Bumrah led the bowling attack in the first innings, registering the figures of 5/85 in 24.4 overs, while other bowlers, including Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj, picked wickets but conceded over 100 runs in their spells. With his five-wicket haul, Bumrah completed his 150 wickets in SENA countries, becoming the first Asian bowler to do so, and registered 14 fifers in his Test career.

However, in the second innings, Jasprit Bumrah shocked fans and critics as he failed to take a single wicket in his spell. The pace spearhead conceded 57 runs in his spell of 19 overs, looking unusually flat and struggling to generate the same intensity and movement that troubled the England batters earlier in the match.

With Bumrah having a rare off-day from his usually lethal standards, it has exposed India’s bowling over-reliance on the pacer to deliver breakthroughs. Though Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur took wickets, it was already late as England’s top-order inflicted enough damage, assisted by misfielding and a dropped catch of Ben Duckett by Yashasvi Jaiswal, to take the game beyond India’s reach.

This looks like a similar pattern from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, where India heavily relied on Jasprit Bumrah to take wickets in the five-match Test series. Bumrah picked 32 wickets and was awarded Player of the Series despite India renouncing the BGT title to Australia for the first time in 10 years.

Will Bumrah be available for the remaining Tests of the series?

With the Headingley Test defeat, the questions have been raised about Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for the remaining matches of the ongoing series to stabilise India’s bowling attack, which looked toothless in both innings.

Speaking at the press conference after the match, India head coach Gautam Gambhir highlighted workload concerns for Jasprit Bumrah, while clarifying that the pace spearhead will play only two more Tests after Headingley.

“I think for us to manage Bumrah's workload is more important because there's a lot of cricket going forward and we know that what he brings to the table as well," the India head coach said.

“So before he came on this tour, it was already decided that he's going to play three Test matches, but let's see how his body turns up. But we haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play," he added.

Before the Test series against Jasprit Bumrah confirmed that he would not be playing all five Tests, as a reason for his decline to take up India’s Test captaincy offer.

Team India will play their next Test against England at Edgbaston on July 2.