Mark Wood, the England fast bowler, thinks Jasprit Bumrah will play in both the second Test at Edgbaston and the third at Lord’s in the current Anderson Trophy series. Wood, who is currently injured and out of the side until the fifth Test, believes Bumrah has to play the second game to help India level the series after losing the first at Headingley. He also thinks Bumrah wouldn’t want to miss the chance to get his name on the Lord’s honours board.
Before the series, chief selector Ajit Agarkar, head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill all said India wouldn’t risk their top bowler for more than three Tests to prevent a serious injury. On Monday, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said Bumrah was available but the team hadn’t decided if he would be playing on Wednesday.
He’s going to play those two, I’m telling you, Wood told Michael Atherton on Sky Sports. I think he’ll play both… He has to because they can’t afford to go 2-0 down, so you want your best bowler. There’s no way he’s going to say I’m not playing at Lord’s. I think he’ll want to play both games. If India win the next one and it’s 1-1, I still think they’ll want him to make the difference to get ahead. Every overseas bowler wants to get on that board and he’ll be the same, he added.
Atherton, the former cricketer, said India would need Bumrah most at Edgbaston and Old Trafford (fourth Test) but agreed he wouldn’t want to miss the Lord’s game.
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He should play at Edgbaston for sure, and I’d say think carefully about Old Trafford because pace and reverse swing is important there, but as you said, every cricketer wants to play at Lord’s and get on that honours board. I do think they should play Kuldeep Yadav. If they had Kuldeep in the team, they’d have won that (Headingley) game, Atherton said.
If Bumrah doesn’t play, India have Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh as options.
