If India have any hope, Jasprit Bumrah must play

Every country needs a Chris Woakes and India more than most. This is not just because Woakes, who took the first wicket of the Edgbaston Test on his home ground, is a great yeoman cricketer. It’s not just because he is a fine swing bowler who has 139 wickets at 22.46 in Test matches in England. It’s because, just as much as Stokes at 6 and Smith at 7, Woakes balances the side. At home, he has given England 1249 runs at an average a shade over 30. Every team needs this player and the absence of any equivalent has led India into a terrible selection confusion.

Remarkably, India have gone into a Test match they need to win without either of their two best bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. They have made three changes from the side selected for the first Test and torn up the balance of the side they thought best only a week ago. Sai Sudharsan, who was supposed to be the new no3, has been jettisoned and replaced by Nitish Kumar Reddy, a less good batsman who bowls a bit. Shardul Thakur has been dropped and the best bowler in the world, Jasprit Bumrah, has been rested until the next Test at Lord’s. Thakur and Bumrah have been replaced by Washington Sundar, a second spinner who bats and a seam bowler, Akash Deep. Four seamers, two spin bowlers and three all-rounders. And after all these contortions the team has been made worse.

The first and essential point to make is that Jasprit Bumrah should be playing. Bumrah is the best bowler in the world, let alone in the Indian squad and India cannot afford to lose a second Test in a series of five. Bumrah is coming back after a shoulder injury and the Indian management have a duty of care. But he has had seven days of rest. Surely the risk of injury is not that great. India need him right now and he should be playing. If that means being rested for Lord’s, then so be it.

India failed to win the first Test because they never looked like bowling England out for a second time. They desperately needed the leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the second innings. Kuldeep ought to be in the side where he would bat at no9. The reason he isn’t is that India don’t have a Woakes one place above. The nearest that India have to a Woakes is Shardul Thakur who scored three half centuries from number eight in the order the last time India were in England. But the captain Shubman Gill clearly doesn’t trust Thakur with the ball. In Leeds, Gill gave him just 6 overs out of 100 bowled in the England first innings and 10 out of 82 in the second. There is no point to a bowler whom the captain will not use. Which only goes to make the problem more acute.

So India have landed on an attack made up of three frontline bowlers (minus the best two) and three all-rounders, although at least two of them are no great shakes with the ball. They have barely added to the batting depth while increasing the number of bowlers but depleting the potency of the attack. It is quite a feat. Philip Larkin once said of the English novel that it contained a beginning, a muddle and an end. India began this series well but somehow managed to lose a Test they ought to have won. Their selection for Edgbaston has been a terrible muddle and if they can’t get England out the end will rapidly approach.