The one big reason for India trailing in the fourth Test at Old Trafford is Jasprit Bumrah’s failure to take wickets with the new ball, a trend that started in the last Test he played at Birmingham. The blazing start of English openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley — scoring 166 runs in 32 overs — pushed England ahead in this decisive Test. According to the Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel, it is the lack of support from the other end that is making it difficult for the team’s pace spearhead to get the better of England’s top order batsmen.
“For him to be successful, we need to build partnerships. The other guys need to help him out and I think at times, the guys are also trying from the other end, they are a little bit greedy — trying to strive too much and that’s how we leak and sort of release that pressure. You can’t say anything about Bumrah, he’s number one in the world, he’s skillful. At times you need help from the other end,” Morkel said.
When talking about Day 2 when the game truly slipped out of India’s hands because of the worst-bowling day of the tour, Morkel again spoke about leaking runs and bowlers being greedy. He was answering a question about debutant Anshul Kamboj being preferred over Mohammed Siraj with the new ball.
“See if we attack first with Bumrah ad and Siraj up front, then we have to go to less experienced guys at first change. So that is a bit of a tricky one, but looking back at yesterday, you back a guy that’s picked on his strength — which being Anshul bowls with the new ball with the best bowler in the world. Siraj has been doing a fantastic job bowling first change. Yesterday our execution let us down, so I think it’s not so much to blame on the combinations we went with, it’s more the fact that we let ourselves down with our execution. I haven’t seen a pitch map where we basically leaked runs, I think 100 runs on both sides, normally like a bit of a split. For me yesterday was either a sign that we were too greedy but we couldn’t stick to the plan and then from there we found ourselves chasing the game a little bit.”
On the question of Bumrah’s workload he said, “You know, he’s the strike bowler, there will be moments that you need to push a guy a little bit harder and longer to get the breakthrough. England has a powerful batting line-up. As a batter, your initial first 20 balls are very crucial and in terms of a guy who can ask questions, he is Bumrah. He is going to be asked a lot of times to come in and do the job for us.”
