It was an open secret that Jasprit Bumrah would choose Lord’s as one of the three Test matches he would play on the current England tour to manage his workload. After India had lost the opener at Leeds, many experts wanted the Indian pace spearhead to play at Birmingham after a week-long rest. But his choice was clear as he had previously played only one Test match here in 2021, with figures of 0-79 and 3-33.
Having missed out on a five-wicket haul then, he looked determined to get his name on the Honours Board of the bowlers who had taken five wickets at the ‘Home of Cricket’. After toiling for five sessions in the third Test here, he finally managed the five-wicket haul and celebrated the milestone with gusto alongside his teammates. He thus became only the 15th Indian to claim five wickets in an innings in the 20th Test match played here between the two since 1932. As no Indian bowler has a 10-wicket match haul here, it would be interesting to see if Bumrah can achieve the unique feat by claiming another fifer and in the process help India take the lead in the series.
Before the start of the Lord’s Test, there was a lot of speculation about the pitch favouring pace bowlers. But it turned out to be slow and lifeless surface, as most of the grass was shorn off on the eve of the match. Thus Bumrah, along with the other bowlers, had to toil for 112.3 overs to terminate the England first innings in the post-lunch session on the second day. On the opening day, Bumrah had to remain satisfied with the sole scalp of Harry Brook and it was all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy who took the honours with a brace of wickets.
But Bumrah on the second day, bowling at the Nursery End, was much more impressive as he sent back Joe Root immediately after the latter had completed his century. It was a brilliant delivery which, instead of going down the slope towards the slips, came in sharply and surprised Root all ends up. So was the case with Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, who were castled by Bumrah. Four of his wickets were clean bowled and only Chris Woakes was caught behind. There is no doubt that he made excellent use of the slope to deceive the English batsmen. Bumrah’s 5-74 is the seventh-best bowling figure among Indians here, with Ishant Sharma heading the list with 7-74 in 2014.
