India captain Jasprit Bumrah believes their batting on the fourth day was the turning point of the fifth Test match against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham after they lost the game by seven wickets. At the start of Day four, India was in a commanding position at 125-3 and they had a big lead of 257 runs.
However, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals in the opening session of the penultimate day and it led to their downfall. India lost four wickets in the first session and then England captain Ben Stokes wiped out the tail.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant were dismissed early and the rest of the batters failed to make any substantial contribution. Thus, India was skittled out for 245 runs in the second essay and they could manage a lead of 377 runs. But there is no denying the fact that the visitors could have batted England out of the contest.
On the other hand, England once again came up with a superb fourth innings batting display as Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root scored centuries to get their team over the line after Zak Crawley and Alex Lees had provided a perfect start.
Meanwhile, the Indian bowlers could not create enough chances in the last innings of the match. In fact, the pitch also didn’t provide them with much assistance but a lot of credit goes to Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow for the way they batted.
Jasprit Bumrah was awarded the Player of the Series for India as he scalped 23 wickets in five matches at an average of 22.47.
Bumrah said in the post-match presentation, “I won’t go that far ahead (of calling himself an all-rounder). That’s the beauty of Test cricket, even if you have three good days. We fell short with the bat yesterday and that is where we let the opposition in to let the match slip away from us. Ifs and buts can always be there. If you go back, if there was no rain in the first match, we could have won the series. But England played really well. We have drawn the series and both teams played very good cricket and it was a fair result.”
He added, “Pant takes his chances. He and Jaddu got us back into the game with their counter-attack. We were ahead in the game. He takes his chances, backs himself and very happy for him. Dravid is always there to guide us and back us. We could have been a little straighter in our bowling lines and use the variable bounce. The captaincy future is not what I decide. I like the responsibility. It was a good challenge, a new challenge. It was an honour to lead the team and a great experience.”
India and England will next take on each other in the three-match T20I series.
