Headingley: There were enough clips on social media to suggest that India skipper Virat Kohli asked Mohammed Siraj to get under the skin of James Anderson by targetting the helmet. The instructions were there for everyone to see. But it was the Jasprit Bumrah-Anderson battle that changed the course of the game.
It was on the stroke of stumps on Day 3 when Bumrah decided to pepper the English pacer with bouncers in the penultimate over of the day. This did not go down well with the Englishman who gave a piece of his mind to his Indian counterpart while leaving the field after being dismissed.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels Kohli may have asked Bumrah to use that ploy against Anderson. Manjrekar reckons so because he feels Bumrah is not someone who would do something like that.
In his column for The Hindustan Times, Manjrekar wrote, “When, out of the blue, Jasprit Bumrah started a relentless attack of short balls aimed into the body of no 11 Jimmy Anderson. It was very un-Bumrah like. Normally you would expect him to bowl a fast, full delivery into the stumps to Anderson to finish off the innings quickly like he did in the first. I am guessing this was Virat Kohli’s plan executed by Bumrah. Go after the main guy in the opposition, soften him up a little, stir him up a bit or maybe injure him in a way that the main English weapon was blunted.”
Eventually, the words from Anderson egged on Bumrah who went on to stitch a match-winning 89-run stand with Mohammed Shami to change the course of the match on the final day. India went on to bundle out the hosts on the final day to win the Test by 151 runs.