In our last test series we thrashed England so let's not go too overboard with the criticism.WI are such an embarrassment. They just keep regressing.
In our last test series we thrashed England so let's not go too overboard with the criticism.
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We won very convincingly put it that way. But as I said, our batting is poor and solid lower middle order contributions and an excellent pace attack have staved off embarrassment more than a few times. In this match our bowling started off in the same way but this time Cummins let all the pressure go and we didn't have a proper spinner.That England series was preceded by a series loss vs Bangladesh.
And did this team really thrash England?
That first test vs England was won by Roach (5 wickets) and Holder (double century) with help from Dowrich (century). The specialist, top order batsmen - Bravo, Hope, Kraigg, Hets etc - all failed as usual.
The second test, Roach and Holder similarly bowled England away. No WI batsmen converted their starts. In the third test, all the WI batsmen were uniformly awful, with the exception of Chase with a lone ton.
This WI top order keeps failing. IMO Dowrich and Holder are their most responsible, solid batsmen.
Boom boomIn the second innings of this Test, Bumrah unleashed the absolute fury of the outswinger. The numbers were staggering. To right-hand batsmen, according to broadcasters Sony, Bumrah bowled seven outswingers in every 10 balls. The results were lethal. Shai Hope and Jason Holder were forced to play the angle and defend their middle stump before the ball swung away late to hit their off stumps. He also bowled the left-hand batsmen John Campbell and Darren Bravo through the gate with late swing. Kraigg Brathwaite was the only one who played an apparently poor shot, defending an outswinger wide enough to be left alone, but then again it is the Bumrah angle that makes you commit to playing the ball.
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If India's facile domination of West Indies didn't have your attention till now, you had better watch Bumrah's spell. West Indies were simply blown away by this magical mix of pace, skill and precision: four of his five victims were bowled. Just like that, with a spell of 8-4-7-5, Bumrah now has five-fors in all four places he has toured for Test cricket: South Africa, England, Australia and the West Indies. No Asian bowler has ever managed five-fors in all these countries. The great Pakistan quicks, Muttiah Muralitharan and Rangana Herath, Kapil Dev and Zaheer Kahan and Anil Kumble, none of them managed this feat. And Bumrah has done this nonchalantly on his first trips to these countries.
He bowled it quite a bit in the England series last year as well (damn it, we should have won that series). Keaton Jennings had some lol-worthy dismissals to it.That Bumrah spell was Waqar in 91/92 level of unplayable. How does a right handed batsman negotiate a ball angling in, pitching on middle and then swinging away? Typically you have outswingers pitching on or just outside off.
That's outstanding coming from an Indian pace bowler.Bumrah stat watch: 55 wickets in 11 tests @ 20.63 with a SR of 46.7
103 wickets in 58 ODIS @ 21.88 with an ER of 4.49 and SR of 29.2