Being a lone ranger can be a tough job, and Jasprit Bumrah may already be feeling the pinch. Across the world, and across formats, the Indian team has been overly dependent on the 30-year-old. This over-dependence has already led the paceman suffer two serious stress fractures, leading to loss of availability and playing time, which has also probably cost Bumrah his Test captaincy. “I can’t play more than three Test matches in a five-match series, given the condition of my body. So, I turned down captaincy for the England series,” Bumrah had recently said before the start of this tour. Saying that Bumrah was overworked in Australia last winter was an understatement. At the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Bumrah was forced to bowl 54 overs, the workload ultimately leading to his breakdown in the final Test in Sydney in the first week of the new year. He was out of cricket for three months following the series Down Under.
Six months down the line, at Headingley, defending a first-innings total of 471, Bumrah was once again India’s only hope with the ball — with little or no help from the other end. Time and again, he had to be brought back by skipper Shubman Gill and while it finally culminated in his 14th five-wicket haul, he had had to account for 25 of the 101 overs that India has bowled in England’s first innings. While Bumrah’s efficacy and potency is beyond doubt, it is the banality of the support-cast that is becoming a cause of headache for Indian cricket observers. Despite returning from a well-documented break following the Australian tour, Mohammed Siraj remains a mystery, losing the zing that had made him such a special bowler a couple of years ago. His seam position is wobbly, the length all over the place and alarmingly, the growing tendency to lose composure is adding to the problems.Prasidh Krishna, clearly a favourite of bowling coach Morne Morkel, meanwhile, hasn’t yet figured the right length for English conditions. He was impressive in the Sydney Test, and was the best bowler in the IPL. He ended up with 3-128, but leaked runs.Quiz: Who’s that IPL player? In the duration of the first innings on Friday and Saturday when the conditions were favourable for the pace bowler, Krishna bowled way too short and let the English batters off the hook. “He struggled to bowl the fuller length bowling from the far end, which doesn’t help when you’re playing in England. Not sure how judicious it is to bowl bouncers with the new ball,” former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara pointed out during commentary as the English tail kept hurting India. The fact that captain Gill didn’t show confidence in fourth pacer Shardul Thakur, didn’t make things any easier for India. In such a situation, Gill, time and again, was forced to go back to Bumrah, not just for wickets but to contain the runs as well. As the workload increased, the fielders didn’t help either, dropping four catches off him at crucial junctures. There was an element of helplessness creeping into his body language after his spell with the second new ball – a feature that didn’t augur well for India. There’s a second innings still to be played and it is imperative on Bumrah’s support-cast to rise to the occasion. Else, India’s lone X-factor bowler will once again stare at a burn-out and the next couple of months will prove a long grind for Gill’s new India.
