Credit: BCCI/X
The absence of Jasprit Bumrah raised many questions on the Indian bowling attack in the early stages of the second Test of the five-match series, which was played at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The Indian bowlers were coming after putting up a sub-optimal bowling performance in the first Test which England won on the final day. But, all these critics were silenced by the pace bowling duo of Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, especially the latter one who was playing his first match of the series. He claimed 10 wickets in the match and his dismissal of Joe Root in England’s second innings is one of the best deliveries bowled in the series so far.
In the light of Akash Deep’s performance, former Indian player Ravichandran Ashwin opined, “Akash Deep should have been given the man of the match.” In a discussion on his YouTube channel Ashwin made this remark which stunned his copanelist Vimal Kumar. While closing this statement Ashwin talked about the Edgbaston surface, which offered little or no assistance to the bowlers. He further added that on Edgbaston’s surface, where the England pacers struggled to get any wickets, Akash Deep bowled from different angles with the same wrist position and took ten wickets. In the later stages of the discussion, he praised Shubman Gill’s effort with the bat in both the innings as well.
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Indian team turned the tables on England in the Edgbaston Test
While delivering one of his most stellar bowling performances, Akash Deep’s command of length and line was superb as he managed to get more seam movement with the new ball than any of the English bowlers. The batting lineup of England had no answers to the unexpected Indian match-winner who was Jasprit Bumrah’s stand-in. The domination with both the bat and the ball proved to be of excellent value for their 336-run victory over the hosts. Indian skipper Shubman Gill was named player of the match for his mammoth innings of 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second, setting a record for most runs (430) by any Indian in a single Test match.
Speaking about the Lord’s Test, Ashwin said, “For the next Test match they (England) will want some life in the pitch. When they have that, I want to see them play Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah.” India and England will play in the third match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy at Lord’s in London. Both the teams will try to take a lead in the series as currently the scores are equal with a tally of 1-1.
