England and India face red-hot series opener and Jasprit Bumrah conundrum

If there was an enduring image from the last Test series between India and England, it was probably that of Jasprit Bumrah detonating Ollie Pope’s stumps in Visakhapatnam – a feet-seeking yorker so ridiculously sweet that the Food Standards Agency could have marked it red on their traffic-light system.

A year and a bit on from England’s 4-1 defeat in India on Friday, Bumrah remains the standout in the two attacks going into the first of five blockbuster Tests, beginning at Headingley on Friday. Even saying this sells him a bit short. Of the 86 bowlers to go past 200 Test wickets, none have done so at a lower average than Bumrah’s 19.4. Only Kasigo Rabada, with a strike rate of 38.9 to Bumrah’s 42, takes his wickets more regularly.

The numbers only improved during Bumrah’s last outing with a red ball, too, with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia last winter returning 32 wickets at 13 runs apiece – one for every 28 deliveries he lashed down. His remains one of the most remarkable actions in the sport, a gentle trot of a run-up followed by a slingshot explosion that asks the batter an absurd number of split-second questions. “It’s awkward to face,” said Ben Stokes on Thursday. “Especially when you first go in, for those first couple of balls.”

If there is something England can take from that BGT series it is that India still lost 3-1. And though something no one likes to see, Bumrah broke down midway through its Sydney finale when the burden of carrying an attack eventually told. The upshot of that experience, going by the interview he gave to Dinesh Karthik for Sky Sports, is that playing three out of the five Tests this summer is the target.

So cricket-lovers hoping to watch Bumrah in the flesh over the next six weeks will have fingers crossed that theirs is the lucky Wonka ticket. For Shubman Gill, a young captain leading a reboot post-Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, it will be a case of trying to coax more out of the support cast. India are seeking their first series win in England since 2007 and their second in a five-Test series away from home.

This being the 20-year anniversary of the 2005 Ashes, thoughts go back to the similarly great Glenn McGrath and the fact that England capitalised on the Tests he missed for their two wins. Not that Stokes and his players will be content to take a lead and park the bus. The England captain accepted his team need to be a bit “smarter” than in the recent past but draws are still very much not his thing.

View image in fullscreen England’s Shoaib Bashir will face a big test of his mettle when he bowls to Rishabh Pant. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Neither is talking about the Ashes, which can only be good news. When India were here in 2021, Chris Silverwood, then England’s head coach, spoke of the series “galvanising” his players for the tour of Australia that winter and watched a fatigued, confused side fall 2-1 behind after four Tests. Had India stayed in the country that summer, rather than push the fifth Test back a year due to Covid and then lose at Edgbaston, they may well have got the job done.

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As Mark Ramprakash has noted, England have a more settled top six these days, even with Jacob Bethell snapping at their heels. And, now that Kohli has hung up his boots, the premier batter across the two sides is unquestionably Joe Root. There are 373 runs between the fourth-placed Yorkshireman (13,006) and second in the all-time Test charts, after which only Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921 will sit higher. Bumrah has taken Root’s wicket nine times – the batter he has dismissed most – and will try to stymie this march.

With the newly minted Anderson-Tendulkar trophy on the line – and this the start of the next World Test Championship – perhaps the biggest question for England surrounds the bowling since the former’s retirement. Chris Woakes, who has claimed 36 wickets at 20.9 since his return in 2023 and is yet to lose a Test under Stokes, leads an attack that has grunt but is notably raw. Among the head-to-heads that could prove decisive is when Rishabh Pant inevitably tries to take down Shoaib Bashir.

However, this role may be something that Karun Nair also takes on, having utterly marmalised England’s spinners nine years ago during a remarkable unbeaten 303 in Chennai. The 33-year-old never kicked on from that match but has forced his way back through Kohli’s exit and some stellar domestic returns that included two spells at Northamptonshire. Of the many storylines in this series, his is one of perseverance.

Like Nair’s recent form, the weather at Headingley is set to be red hot and sets up a tricky toss. The old saying in these parts is to look up, not down – ie bat under clear skies, bowl under cloud cover – but there will surely be a temptation to go the other way. In recent times, the pitch has tended to improve as the match has progressed, with the past six Tests here won by the side that has bowled first.

For England, another subplot will also unfold 90 miles further north when Jofra Archer makes a first-class return – his first red-ball appearance since 2021 – for Sussex at Durham with an eye on playing the second Test in Birmingham. Archer is possibly the closest thing England have to Bumrah by way of unique attributes, although there really is only one.

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