Jasprit Bumrah’s world-class spell was the turning point, says Joe Root

The England captain Joe Root lamented that his team erred by not building a big enough first-innings lead on a very batting-friendly pitch.

Indian paceman Jasprit Bumrah is congratulated by his teammates after picking up a wicket on Day 5 of the fourth Test against England. (Photo: Reuters)

England captain Joe Root lauded the ability of pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah saying that his spell of reverse swing with the ball that was 60-odd over old turned the match in India’s favour. “Credit to India, they got the ball to reverse. I thought Bumrah’s spell was the real turning point of the game,” said skipper Joe Root after the match that India won by 157 runs.

Till the 61st over, England were coasting along at 141/2 but Bumrah took the ball and after spinner Ravindra Jadeja had dismissed Haseeb Hameed, the right-arm pace bowler ran through the middle-order, picking the wickets of Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow.

“He’s (Bumrah) a superb bowler and at times we need to be realistic and accept that he bowled really well. That was world-class bowling. Have to manage better if we’re in a similar situation in the near future, especially our game against reverse swing.”

The England captain lamented that his team erred by not building a big enough first-innings lead on a very batting-friendly pitch. He also pointed out at dropped catches. Opener Rohit Sharma, who went on to score his maiden Test century overseas in second innings, was dropped twice by opener Rory Burns before reaching fifty. On one other occasion, before Sharma had reached his half-century, Chris Woakes was deceived by the trajectory of the catch.

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“Maybe we should have made more of an advantage with the first-innings lead and should have taken the chances that were offered,” Root said.

“At the end of the day, we needed to be ruthless, should have got more than a 100-run lead. We needed those big hundreds, big partnerships. We need to play good cricket right around in Old Trafford, can’t get complacent. Need to get those big runs which sets up the game, which we did a week ago (in Headingley),” added Root.