Ajay Jadeja praised Jasprit Bumrah for not giving the England batters any room to breathe in the first ODI on Tuesday, July 12.
At The Oval, Bumrah took England’s batting order apart with a spell of 6/19 in 7.2 overs. The home team was bowled out for only 110 runs, and they went on to lose by 10 wickets.
During a discussion on Sony Sports about the game, Jadeja was asked about how Jasprit Bumrah set England back by taking two wickets in his first over. He answered:
“Every team has five or six batters, so getting rid of 33% of them in the first over has a big effect. And of the two players he got, Joe Root is the one who holds them together. He didn’t let the batters get comfortable at all.”
The former Indian opening batsman also said that the fact that Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were able to reach the target so easily showed how important Bumrah’s performance was. Jadeja elaborated:
“Conditions were definitely good, but they were good for other people, too. When the Indian batters played, you got a better idea of how important that was. He didn’t bowl a short ball, a cut ball, or a pulled ball.”
England’s score was 26/5 at the end of the eighth over, after Bumrah had bowled four overs. In his first four overs, Bumrah got 4/6, which helped bring England’s score down. With the new ball, the Gujarat fast bowler got rid of Jason Roy, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, and Liam Livingstone. Mohammad Shami then got rid of Ben Stokes.
Ajay Jadeja heaps praise on Jasprit Bumrah
Jadeja pointed out the different ways Bumrah got rid of Livingstone in the second T20I and the ODI on Tuesday. He pointed out:
“He has a good grasp of the situation. It’s the same Liam Livingstone, he got out with the slower ball in the last game. The wicket was brown, so that was what was needed. It was swinging here.”
In the end, the former cricket player, who is now an analyst, put Bumrah on a high pedestal. Jadeja said:
“Jasprit Bumrah’s strength is that he has speed and swing, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone who knows better than him what to do in different situations.”
In the second T20I between these two teams, Bumrah bowled out Livingstone with a slower ball. In Tuesday’s game, he again knocked over the stumps, this time with a big inswinger as the dangerous England batter moved across to play the ball to the leg side.
