Two wickets on the second day of the Leeds Test, as other Indian bowlers continued to struggle, that is the story of Jasprit Bumrah, once again. Let’s go to the Australia series straightway, where the legend picked up 32 wickets, but the team struggled since he did not get enough support from the others. That is what happened against England too, where the 31-year-old bowled his heart out, picked up wickets, created opportunities, while the others were just ineffective.
Jasprit Bumrah Gets 147th Wicket in SENA Nations
Towards the end of the day, when the hosts reached 188/2 and Bumrah recorded figures of 2/43, Mohammed Siraj bowled 14 overs for 50 runs and went wicketless. Prasidh Krishna proved to be very expensive and gave away 56 runs, while Ravindra Jadeja looked flat to return without any wicket. And the burden of picking up wickets fell on the spearhead again.
| Bowler | Wickets | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Jasprit Bumrah | 147 | 20.99 |
| Wasim Akram | 146 | 24.11 |
| Anil Kumble | 141 | 37.04 |
| Ishant Sharma | 130 | 36.86 |
| M Muralidharan | 125 | 26.69 |
| Mohammed Shami | 123 | 32.88 |
| Zaheer Khan | 119 | 31.47 |
| Kaipl Dev | 117 | 33.07 |
| Waqar Younis | 113 | 29.15 |
But amidst this concerning trend, Jasprit Bumrah became the most successful Asian bowler in SENA countries, as he managed to bag his 147th wicket in these nations, topping the list now, and surpassing the great Wasim Akram at 146 wickets. The India obviously has a much better average of 20.99 as compared to the Pakistanis average of 24.11.
But Other Indians Continue to Struggle
The list also includes the likes of Anil Kumble (141), Ishant Sharma (130), and Mohammed Shami (123), but the other Indian bowlers part of this England match are really, really far behind. And that leaves Bumrah will very minimal support. Jadeja, the most experienced bowler in the line up, has had his struggles in the SENA nations. He has 56 wickets in 25 matches.
Siraj, on the other hand has 68 scalps, but has been really high averages in Australia and England. An economy of 3.85 in the latter nation, is just criminal. Shardul Thakur has 30 of his 31 wickets in SENA nations, but his sample size is quite small, and he looked out of sync, in whatever little he bowled.
Bumrah Needs Support
These numbers are pretty reflective, that it is going to be a tough tour to endure for the Indian bowlers, especially as Bumrah’s workload management comes into play, and he would only be appearing in three Tests. To add to that, in whatever matches he is playing, he can’t bowl for extended spells as well. So, the only way out is, the other bowlers need to be much more effective, but how is a question best left to be answered by them?
