Mohammed Shami Calls For Stronger Support For Jasprit Bumrah In England Test

India's fast bowler Mohammed Shami, whose name was not in the Indian squad for the England tour, is very dissatisfied with the bowling performance of Team India in the first test against England at Headingley in Leeds. England defeated India by 5 wickets and chased their second-highest total in test history of 371 runs. All these efforts were made by England's batsmen on the last day and have taken a 1-0 lead in the test series. In the first test, Indian bowlers gave away a lot of runs, giving away almost 4.5 runs per over and almost 5 runs in both innings. In the entire bowling unit, Jasprit Bumrah was the only player who was very effective in his performance.

Shami, while previewing India's bowling after the first test, felt that there was a need for other bowlers to learn from Bumrah and support him because he alone showed himself as a lone warrior in the bowling unit. Bumrah took 5 wickets in the first innings but remained wicketless in the second innings because the England batsmen did not take any risks in his overs.

Talking about India's bowling lineup in his YouTube channel, Shami said,

"Other Indian bowlers should talk to Bumrah and learn from him in bowling. They should talk to him about planning and support him. If they support Bumrah, then we can easily win the match. If I talk about the first match, I think we need to work a bit on bowling."

Further, Shami also mentioned that Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna's wickets had zero impact on the game because, till then, England's batsmen were almost set.

He said,

"Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna took two wickets each in the second innings, but by the time Shardul dismissed two England batsmen, the match was out of India's reach. It is very important to take wickets with the new ball. He should support Bumrah. England won the first test because we gave away too many easy runs. We have to figure out how to strengthen our bowling attack."

Shami is not a part of this Test tour because, in the press conference, chief selector Ajit Agarkar had revealed that they do not consider him fit to play a five-match Test series. In his absence, the selectors have called up Arshdeep Singh for the maiden Test. The second Test will be played from 2nd July, where we can expect that Arshdeep might get a chance because Bumrah's chances of playing the second Test are pretty much null.