Speaking to foxsports.com.au, England great Michael Vaughan addressed the dilemma that looms if Bumrah powers his side to a series-shaping win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made it very clear that he was only going to play three at the start of the season. I guess if they win here, he might get a knock on the shoulder to say: \u2018Come on, one more go at The Oval\u2019,\u201d Vaughan said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut the two games that he\u2019s played, he\u2019s bowled great \u2014 but India have lost. The game that he didn\u2019t play, for whatever reason, Mohammed Siraj (and) Akash Deep got a pitch at Edgbaston that nipped quite quickly with the new ball. They maximised it, England didn\u2019t play well at all and they (India) won the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor India to win the series, you would think that Bumrah\u2019s going have to play a big, big role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bumrah has recorded an impressive 12 wickets at 21 from his two games this series, at an even more impressive strike rate of 43.33. Only teammate Mohammed Siraj (13 wickets at 32) has claimed more victims, while Ben Stokes and Josh Tongue (11 wickets) have led England\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n
Jasprit Bumrah of India celebrates bowling Chris Woakes of England during Day 4 of the 3rd Test between England and India at Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 13, 2025 (Photo by Clive Mason\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
However, despite Bumrah being far and away India\u2019s best bowler, the team\u2019s record without him since his debut in 2018 is mind-boggling. In the 28 Tests they have played without the number one ranked red-ball bowler in the world, India have won 20 times, lost five and drawn three \u2014 that\u2019s a win percentage of 71.43 per cent.<\/p>\n
Conversely, in the 48 Tests in which Bumrah has featured, India have won just 20, lost 24, and drawn four \u2014 a win rate of only 41.67%.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he\u2019s not there, maybe England just switched off slightly. Maybe they just switched off as a batting group, because Bumrah wasn\u2019t playing. When you have a player like Bumrah in your side, as a batting unit you\u2019ve got to be so switched on, committed (and) concentrated. And that\u2019s the only reason I can give really,\u201d Vaughan continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kind of things happen. The spell that he bowled at Lord\u2019s on the fourth morning was incredible. How he didn\u2019t get three or four wickets (is astounding).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I\u2019ll say, is that they (England) know that Bumrah is only ever going to bowl about five overs (in a row). So I think England trying to see him off. I know he has (still) got wickets, but England do try and see him off, and then they try to just play the other end and get as many runs as they can from the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gill ignites war of words with England | 01:41<\/p>\n
In the two Tests Bumrah has played so far this series, it\u2019s India\u2019s batting more than their bowling that has let them down against England\u2019s aggressive \u2018Bazball\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n
It sounds outrageous given that four of India\u2019s batters are currently averaging 60 or more for the series, but in the innings where their stars haven\u2019t capitalised, wickets have fallen at crucial moments or in clumps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s India\u2019s batting when Bumrah has played (that is the issue). They\u2019ve just had so many opportunities in this series, Leeds they collapsed twice. (At) Lord\u2019s last week in the first innings, they should have got a decent lead and they didn\u2019t,\u201d Vaughan ended by saying to foxsports.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd obviously not chasing 190 odd (in the third Test), that\u2019s not down to Bumrah. He batted nicely actually, but they should have enough in the tank to chase 190 odd, against an England side on a pitch that did a little bit, It wasn\u2019t a minefield, (but) they just didn\u2019t cope with the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first ball of the fourth Test between England and India gets underway at 8pm AEST on Wednesday night. Watch it live on Fox Cricket (channel 501), and streaming on Kayo, from 7:30pm AEST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As superstar spearhead Jasprit Bumrah prepares for India\u2019s fourth Test against England on Wednesday, selectors continue to grapple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[1724,64,63,689,17068,17070,17052,17062,17057,17060,740,1208,17072,2057,17071,2105,17061,17054,1209,17053,17066,17067,17055,2132,3583,677,17065,17069,17063,17059,12540,85,17058,3598,3586,17056,17064,17073],"class_list":["post-15527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-batting-group","tag-batting-unit","tag-bowling-loads","tag-city-of-birmingham","tag-city-of-manchester","tag-combat-brilliant","tag-cricket","tag-england","tag-epic-series-finale","tag-europe","tag-gareth-copley","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grim-reality","tag-impressive-strike-rate","tag-india","tag-jarring-selection-headache","tag-joe-root","tag-managing-bowlign-workloads","tag-michael-vaughan","tag-mohammed-siraj","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-sachin-tendulkar","tag-sam-konstas","tag-selection-debate","tag-series-finale","tag-southern-asia","tag-sports","tag-superstar-spearhead","tag-time-offer","tag-united-kingdom","tag-win-percentage","tag-win-rate","tag-win-loss-ration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}