As the Indian cricket team moves to a new era with a fresh face, Shubman Gill in the leadership role in Test matches, a challenging time lies ahead with the tour of England fast approaching. With a relatively inexperienced batting set-up without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the added responsibilities come into the bowling department, which will be led by Jasprit Bumrah.
One of the finest all-format pacers, perhaps the best Test bowler for India in ages, Bumrah will lead the bowling pack in challenging English conditions.
“Playing in England is always a different challenge. I always love bowling with the Dukes ball,” said Bumrah in conversation with Michael Clarke on his Beyond 23 podcast.
“But I don’t know how much the Duke’s ball is doing right now because there’s always constant changes to the ball. But the weather, the swinging conditions. And then when the ball becomes soft, there’s always a challenge. So I always look forward to playing in England,” he added while speaking about the challenges faced once the ball gets softer.
The upcoming tour will be Bumrah’s third in England. The 31-year-old believes the bowling line-up of India is capable of troubling any team in any conditions. “As a bowling unit, we always feel confident that when the batters are being ultra-aggressive, on a given day, anybody could run through and get wickets,” said Bumrah.
He also commented on England’s ultra-aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach and said, “They’re playing an interesting style of cricket, which is interesting because I don’t really understand it too much.”
The five-match Test series against England will start from June 20 to July 4 and will be played in five venues for nearly two months.
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‘The first Test will be played in Leeds, then in Birmingham before moving to London’s iconic Lord’s, and the last two Tests will be played in Manchester and The Oval.
The ace pacer was in reckoning for the Test leadership but since he is unlikely to feature in all five Tests, looking at his workload management, the selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar decided to go with Gill instead.