Second Test: Bumrah all but out but India wants to leave England guessing

The Jasprit Bumrah conundrum has come back to hit India hard as it looks to level the England series with the second Test beginning at Edgbaston on Wednesday, a venue where India has never won a Test.

The buzz from England says it’s all decided that the pace ace will skip the upcoming battle with an eye on his workload, but Gautam Gambhir & Co. want to keep the hosts guessing until the first morning of the game. ‘’Bumrah is available though we are yet to decide on playing him,’’ assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said, ostensibly to keep the mental warfare on.

The possibility of Bumrah skipping the second Test gained credence when the assembled Indian media found out on Monday afternoon that he did not bowl at the nets at all, leaving Mohammed Siraj, Prasiddh Krishna, Akash Deep and left-armer Arshdeep Singh to sweat it out. The fast bowling leader was seen having a prolonged chat with head coach Gambhir, though it’s anybody’s guess what their conversation was about.

The popular perception is that Arshdeep is likely to make his debut in the longer format in helpful conditions, with his natural left-arm bowler’s angle, ability to swing the ball and more importantly to add that element of freshness in India’s pace attack which had been missing at Headingley.

It’s been a while since the great Zaheer Khan that India used a left-armer on a consistent basis, with the exception of the now forgotten T. Natarajan during the 2021 tour Down Under and Jaydev Unadkat being recalled for a home Test in 2022. 

From being the babe of the team who took his international bow in T20s in 2022, the once newbie from India’s Under-19 assembly line is now more of a finished product and India's highest wicket-taker in T20s, playing county cricket to nurse his red-ball dreams. Should Bumrah eventually not play, then Siraj and Krishna are likely to retain their places in the playing eleven while there will be a toss-up between Arshdeep and Akash Deep from Bengal.

The fifth seamer in the squad, Akash Deep stood out at the nets on Monday and impressed everyone with the limited opportunities he had during the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and what may work in his favour too is that he is no bunny with the bat.

Meanwhile, there is a growing call to find room for a second spinner in Kuldeep Yadav as a wicket-taking bowler, though it remains to be seen as to how the team management does the balancing act as the lower order batters failed to inspire any confidence in the first Test. 

Among those calling for Kuldeep is former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar, since the wicket in Birmingham is known to assist spinners. Speaking on Star Sports, Bangar said: ‘’How can we bring Kuldeep Yadav into the team? The team will have to give some thought to how we can bring Kuldeep Yadav into the XI, because judging by the approach we saw from the England batters in the first Test, Kuldeep — who bowls wrist spin — could be effective. Historically, England’s batters haven’t played wrist spin particularly well. So that is definitely something worth considering.”

However, should India go in with the same template as the first Test, then Nitish Kumar Reddy may take the place of seaming allrounder Shardul Thakur, who had a poor game. Reddy batted long at the nets and was also a part of the new-look slip cordon.