One incident which captured maximum eyeballs during the recently concluded second Test between England and India at Lords Cricket Ground, London was the verbal exchanges between England’s James Anderson and Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah had bowled a barrage of bouncers to Anderson on Day 3 of the match, which led to flaring of tempers between the players for the remainder of the contest. Eventually, the visitors won the game by a massive margin of 151 runs.
Now ahead of the next match, Anderson has opened up about the bumpers he faced from Bumrah, stating that it was probably the first time in his career he felt a bowler was not trying to get him out. The Lancashire cricketer admitted he was caught off guard before entering the ground because his teammates told him that the track is relatively slow and Bumrah was also not bowling quick.
“I got caught off guard a little bit because all the batters coming in were saying how slow the pitch was. Banged in short; it was really slow. When I came out to bat, Joe said Bumrah was not bowling as quick as he normally does. And then, the first ball was 90 miles an hour and on the money, wasn’t it? And it felt like I haven’t felt like this ever in my career. I felt he wasn’t trying to get me out,” said Anderson in the Tailenders podcast.
The 39-year-old reckoned he only tried to survive in the over that featured multiple no-balls, with only two deliveries directed at the stumps.
“I felt he wasn’t trying to get me out. He bowled an over, maybe 10, 11, 12 balls. He was bowling no-ball after no-ball, bowling short. I think he bowled two on the stumps, which I managed to dig out. So for me, it was just about trying to survive that and get Joe back on strike,” the Burnley-born added.
Both teams will now face each other at Headingley in Leeds for the third Test, starting on Wednesday (August 25).
