Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook said it should be fascinating to see how Joe Root will be countering Jasprit Bumrah in future after the fast-bowler dismissed the right-handed batter for the second time in the ongoing series at Visakhapatnam.
In his magical spell of 6-45, where Bumrah produced a masterclass in reverse-swing bowling, he removed Root, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, before cleaning up the tail by removing Tom Hartley and James Anderson. The scalp of Stokes was his 150th wicket in Test matches, as India took a 171-run first-innings lead.
“A couple of those balls, the Bumrah spell against Joe Root, is actually very high-quality reverse swing bowling. What is very clever about it is after the partnership, Bumrah didn’t bowl the first over of reverse swing, (Mukesh) Kumar did, and when they knew it was reverse swinging, they went to his (India skipper Rohit Sharma’s) best bowler.”
“Joe Root, unfortunately, he’s England’s best-ever batsman, he’s scored over 11,000 runs, and now we’re going to see a challenge that he’s got to overcome. If you think, 11,000 runs, he won’t have to worry about anything else, but the next three and a half Test matches will be having to deal with Bumrah early on in his innings, to try and score runs early on. It’s fascinating and we’ll see if Joe Root is good enough to counter it,” said Cook to TNT Sports.
In the light of Root’s troubles against Bumrah, Cook, who is also the last England captain to win a Test series in India during the 2012/13 season, recalled the problems he faced over his career on facing ex-South Africa bowler Morne Morkel.
“Morkel used to get me out for fun. Even at Surrey, he used to remind me how many times he had got me out. He actually bowled a straight wide one, and I just cut it straight to point. Any other bowler, I‘d have hit that four, but the mental game gets you a bit.
“I’ve faced Bumrah a number of times, but I don’t think I’ve ever faced him bowling as well as that. His awkwardness, his different angles, he creates a different vision for the batter and it makes him sometimes unplayable,” he said.
Cook further explained how Bumrah’s mastery left Root indecisive in his mind, leading to his dismissal. “Bumrah has a really good record against Root. He’s got him out eight times in 12 Test matches, so he doesn’t line him up particularly well. So when he tries to get him LBW, he starts covering that. As a batsman you’re thinking ‘this is what he’s trying to do’. A lot of time in the nets trying to play it straight.”
“At Hyderabad, he was playing across the line and got LBW. Early on he saw an in-swinger and played a beautiful straight bat, so he’s trying to do it. But what he does do, you’re looking to play the ball all the time.
“Bumrah has realised that and dragged him wider. So you’re trying to cover that but it brings another dismissal into play, so he’s got him out both ways now. Now Root’s in that horrible position that the batsman has got the wood over you, so how are you going to counter it?”