England vs India: Bumrah plays down chances of a collapse every session

Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who wreaked havoc with the ball to rattle the English batting on the first day of the fourth Test match said that it might not be possible to trigger a collapse in every session of the game.

“You can’t wicket 5-6 wickets every session,” said Bumrah as quoted by The Indian Express. Bumrah’s fiery spell, complemented by quality bowling by Ishant Sharma, Hardik Pandya resulted in the Englishmen being down at 86/6 at one stage. But a gritty 78 from all-rounder Sam Curran helped the hosts reach 246 in their first innings and Bumrah feels that India haven’t yet let the game slip out of their hands.

He said, “They played well too, and built a good partnership between Sam Curran and Moeen Ali. When Curran came in to bat, he was playing the waiting game. As the ball got older, it stopped swinging a lot and there was less seam movement as well. Then he played some shots and they scored some runs. After the break, we decided we had to create pressure again and work hard for a wicket, and things would follow.”

“If you’d told us in the morning that we’d get them out for 250, we’d have taken that any day. We had them 80 for five, but they played well too.”

He also said that India were happy with what they’ve done in the first innings with the ball and would be aiming to bat well in a bid to draw the Test series.

“Oh, they’re 80 for five, so you should get them out for 100.’ We’re happy with this score and if we bat well, it will help us going forward,” he added further.

Bumrah’s figures of 3/46 was the best performance with the ball for India. The wrecker-in-chief of the English batting said that they were indeed surprised by the amount of sea, movement that they got in the morning.

“When we started in the morning, there was a lot of seam movement and swing. We also wanted to bat first. So that (movement) was a little more than we expected. We thought there would be a little help but this was more than we expected,” he said.

“You don’t want to try too much in that case. It’s always better for the bowlers to stick to a line and length, and that helps you get wickets. As a bunch when you’re getting wickets, it’s always good. You can create pressure from both ends,” added the right-arm speedster.

Bumrah thus made his comeback to the Indians side after he missed the first two Test matches in Edgbaston and Lord’s respectively. The Gujarat bowler with an unorthodox action now has taken 10 wickets in just the three innings he has played so far in the series. As a matter of fact, it was his dismissals of opener Keaton Jennings and Jonny Bairstow that set the tone for the Indian bowling to dominate the day.

Whenever a plan works it’s a good feeling. But (was Jennings’ dismissal) a dream delivery, I don’t know about that. That’s not a new ball. I usually have the in-swinger (to the left-hander) and the out-swinger to the right-hander,” said Bumrah.

“I bowled that to Chris Gayle in the World T20 semi-final as well. It’s not a new delivery. When you have too many options, you don’t want to use all of them in a single day. Whenever you feel that option is suitable, you use it,” he also added.

He also said that he keeps on trying to learn new things.

“There’s always a lot of hard work because I try to always learn new things and add them to my armoury. It’s good to have a lot of options because you’re always in a good space when you’re bowling in the match. That is always my aim,”