Shastri, Arun Covid+ve
Indian pace attack. For all their pace talent, the impact was restricted to match-turning, match-winning spells. Bumrah though makes the difference in long, tough series. It reflects in his excellent numbers. Counted since 2018, his strike rate and average are the best in the second innings—26 wickets at an average of 17.62 (S/R 40.7).
When at the top of his game, the opposition is under pressure through the series. It was seen in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 series in Australia, when he took 21 wickets in four Tests and 11 wickets in three, respectively. He is having a similar impact in this series. At Trent Bridge, he took nine wickets and took three crucial wickets in the second innings for the Lord’s win. With four at Oval, his tally is 18 in four games.
On an easy-paced wicket, Bumrah showed his skill and class. Australian spin legend Shane Warne, on TV commentary, compared his second spell of 6-3-6-2 to Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis at his prime: “It is as good a spell as I have seen the whole summer.”
Bumrah didn’t get a wicket in the morning but gave nothing away with his line around offstump. He set the tone by giving away one run in his first three overs, in a spell of 11-5-14-0.
That intensity lifted the rest of the bowlers, and Thakur provided the first breakthrough of the innings. He ended the resistance of Rory Burns. In his very first over, Thakur surprised the left-handed opener with a ball that left him a shade after pitching to take the edge. Burns was set at his home ground and had celebrated his half-century the previous ball.
In a real bonus for India, England No. 3 Dawid Malan was run out responding to the call for a suicidal single by Haseeb Hameed. India had kept things tight, conceding just 54 runs in 27 overs till lunch, setting the stage for an intense second period.
Opener Hameed was on 62 (187 b) and in-form Root was on eight. With eight wickets in hand, England needed 237 runs at a run-rate of 3.76.
India needed wickets to force the hosts to shut shop. The pressure was on Jadeja. The team had persisted with him for four Tests in a row (five, including the WTC final), and he had to deliver. In the first session, Jadeja kept things tight and saw Mohammed Siraj spill an easy catch at mid-off off Hameed. He finally had his man. He landed in the rough and the batsman exposed his stumps. The ball spun across him and hit the top of off-stump. In his next over, a run later, Jadeja had Moeen Ali caught off the glove by substitute Suryakumar Yadav at forward short-leg. With Bumrah claiming two at the other end, England collapsed to 147/6.
Now, Root was the only obstacle. Thakur doesn’t possess the pace and quality of Bumrah, but has the knack of making things happen. At Trent Bridge he trapped a set Root leg-before. On Monday, he lulled him into inside-edging on to the stumps. Brief scores: India 191 & 466; England 290 & 210 (R Burns 50, H Hameed 63, U Yadav 3/60, J Bumrah 2/27, R Jadeja 2/50, S Thakur 2/22). India won by 157 runs, lead series 2-1.
The RT-PCR test results for India head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar have returned positive for Covid. Team physio Nitin Patel whose results came negative, will remain in isolation for a period of 10 days. They will miss the rest of the tour.
It is learnt Shastri developed symptoms on Saturday after which he underwent lateral flow tests, which returned a positive result. Although no one from India’s playing squad have been deemed close contacts, all of them have undergone RT PCR tests as a precautionary measure and the results are awaited. The entire squad underwent another round of lateral flow tests before the
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final day’s play on Monday. All came negative and then they left for the Oval.
The Indian team is scheduled to travel to Manchester on Tuesday for the final Test starting on September 10. The travel plans will be dictated by their Covid test results.
The ongoing series is being played under relatively relaxed guidelines for Covid-19 after the UK government eased all social distancing norms for the public in July. No bio-secure bubbles have been created, and the players have been allowed to move freely, even go to restaurants where the staff has had double vaccination. The Indian team members had attended Shastri’s book launch function before the Oval Test where outsiders were allowed to mingle freely with the squad.