Birmingham, July 7: Jasprit Bumrah didn’t play the second Test and yet England received a sound thrashing and now Ben Stokes and his teammates will have to prepare for premier Indian pacer’s bagful of tricks at the Lord’s which is difficult to replicate even in the nets, admits the home skipper.
England lost the second Test by 336 runs and the Indian team management didn’t field its premier strike bowler due to workload issues.
Indian skipper Shubman Gill confirmed that world’s best fast bowler will be back during the third Test starting July 10 and Stokes wasn’t amused that he would be asked about the fast bowling talisman for zillionth time.
“I thought I’d get through a press conference without being asked about Jasprit Bumrah. We play against each other so often you know what you will be faced with so you put it into practise in training,” Stokes said at the post-match press conference.
“Try to do what you can with the coaches and the sidearms, going wide on the crease, trying to give you practise like their bowling lineup. It’s always tough to replicate something that will come down at you in a game.
On their bowling front, Stokes didn’t commit if Jofra Archer will be unleashed on the Indian batting line-up in the next game, starting July 10 “Again, it’ll be a decision that we have to make seeing how everyone pull up. We’ve had him here this week to get around the group and build him up with his workloads. Everyone’s in consideration for the game at Lord’s,” Stokes said.
Stokes believes that as a team, England need to remain level-headed, neither get too ecstatic after victory nor too bogged down after defeat.
“We’ve obviously had some unbelievable wins and some bad defeats. I feel I’m quite good and the team is quite good at staying level throughout those ups and downs. We knew coming into the series it wasn’t going to be easy,” the England skipper said.
“Disappointed with the loss here as it would have been great to carry the momentum over from the first game but we don’t find ourselves sitting here like that. We have to wipe this one under the carpet as quickly as we can because Lord’s day one will be coming round pretty quickly.
“We will have one or two days to get the bodies right and recover and all of sudden we will be out there flipping the coin. It’s about staying as level as you possibly can and not getting too up or low staying true to the fundamentals of what’s got this team to where we are,” Stokes concluded. (PTI)
