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regular-article-logo Tuesday, 08 July 2025

England sweat over return of Bumrah threat: McCullum & Stokes look to tackle Indian speedster

Bumrah, the spearhead of the Indian attack, did not play in Birmingham to manage his workload. He came to England with a plan of playing in three of the five Tests

Our Bureau Published 08.07.25, 12:55 PM
Jasprit Bumrah.

Jasprit Bumrah. File picture

England have a lot of thinking to do before the Lord’s Test after receiving a thrashing at the hands of India in the Edgbaston match.

Having been tormented by Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj in the Birmingham Test, they will not only have to think about ways to tackle these two pacers, but also will have to prepare separately for Jasprit Bumrah, who is all set to play the third game after sitting out the second.

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Captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum did not hide their concern about the Bumrah threat while speaking to the media following the 336-run defeat at Edgbaston.

When asked about their plans for Bumrah, Stokes wasn’t amused. “I thought I’d get through a press conference without being asked about Jasprit Bumrah. We play against each other so often, you know what you will be faced with, so you put it into practice in training,” the skipper said.

But Stokes also added that no amount of practice can replicate match situations.

“Try to do what you can with the coaches and the sidearms, going wide on the crease, trying to give you practice like their bowling line-up. It’s always tough to replicate something that will come down at you in a game,” Stokes said.

McCullum, who admitted that England “ran second for five days” in the second Test, said that they need to plan to tackle Bumrah.

“Bumrah will more than likely come back in for the next one, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re well planned and well prepared and ready for the next challenge,” McCullum was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

“It (Lord’s) will be quite different I imagine to this (Edgbaston) surface and that’s probably a good thing for us.

“We ran second for five days. I thought India played exceptionally well. Shubman Gill was at an elite level and played brilliantly on this pitch. We weren’t quite able to play how we wanted to on it and they thoroughly deserved to win,” the New Zealander said.

Bumrah, the spearhead of the Indian attack, did not play in Birmingham to manage his workload. He came to England with a plan of playing in three of the five Tests.

While many pundits thought Bumrah should have played in Birmingham after the loss in the opening Test, the Indian team management, which includes head coach Gautam Gambhir, made a bold move of going into the second Test without the 31-year-old.

As it turned out, the Indian attack did superbly even without their best bowler. Akash Deep was a revelation with a 10-wicket match haul and had Shubman Gill not played those two brilliant innings, he surely would have been the player of the match. Not far behind was Siraj, who had a six-wicket haul in the first innings at Edgbaston.

India’s pace line-up
for Lord’s looks set, with Bumrah joining Akash Deep and Siraj. Prasidh Krishna will sit out.

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