Facing Jasprit Bumrah as a batter is a unique challenge that perhaps has no parallel. The England team is finding that out in the ongoing Leeds Test.
Describing the experience, opener Ben Duckett, who scored 62 in the first innings, said: “He (Bumrah) is the best bowler in the world. He’s extremely hard to face, good in any conditions, and when he’s coming in down the hill with the lights on and it’s swinging both ways, it’s tough.
“His ability to bowl three or four different balls with no cue — you don’t know if he’s bowling a bouncer, or a slow ball, a yorker, an away-swinger or an inswinger until it comes out of his hand... You’ve got to watch the ball so hard with him, it’s very difficult to pick up Jasprit.”
Though English batters did fairly well to post a total of 465 in their first innings, they struggled against Bumrah, who finished as the top wicket-taker for India with 5/83.
Among those who survived Bumrah’s challenges was Ollie Pope, who remained unbeaten on Day II before finally being dismissed for 106 on Sunday.
Duckett was happy for his teammate.
“He (Pope) was just so calm coming out. He probably couldn’t have come out in tougher conditions, with Bumrah running down the hill with the lights on. I don’t know what’s inside his head, but he’s just stayed true to the way he plays,” Duckett said.
“There’s no better feeling than that, scoring a hundred against that attack, coming out in the first over. You could see it in the way he celebrated, and it didn’t just meant a lot to him, it meant a huge amount in the dressing room as well. I had goosebumps for him.”
There was speculation about Pope’s place in the team despite his 171 in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe last month. This century will help him answer his critics.
“It seemed pretty clear coming into this Test that if a bloke scores 171 a few weeks ago, he’s going to play this one. The way Pope has dealt with that (pressure) has just been superb and just sums up and proves why he’s England’s No. 3 and doing the things that he’s doing,” Duckett said in praise of Pope.