The signs were there long before the wickets came. Jasprit Bumrah‘s opening spell at Edgbaston yielded nothing on the scoreboard, but it had everything else – pace that kept climbing, movement through the air, relentless accuracy and an England top order scrambling for answers. By the time the breakthroughs arrived, the damage had already been done.
Facing most of the brunt and remaining unscathed was Ben Duckett. Of the four overs, he alone faced 19 deliveries, scoring 7. But it was in those remaining 16 deliveries that Bumrah showed why he remains the best all-format bowler in the current era.
Relentless consistency
The first one of the morning struggled to touch 129kmph and Duckett happily defended. But there was a cue. He was already getting to angle the ball away. The next two were beaten with both landing almost in a blind spot and missing the outside edge by millimetres.
In between, he copped a blow to his fingers, winced in pain, but Bumrah was in no mood to show any mercy. If anything, he showed a ruthless side as well, sending a yorker in the first over, which hit the left-hander flush on his foot, with the ball pitching outside leg, saving him.
More importantly, as he grew into the spell, the speedometer kept climbing as Duckett and Jacob Bethell survived a spell that they may not frequently confront in ODIs.
The OGs at Work. 😎
Jasprit Bumrah finds the edge. Rohit Sharma makes no mistake. 🤝
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There was movement from the pitch and through the air. Add the precision at which Bumrah operated, denying any sort of width, and the remarkable consistency he maintained with his length, and this had everything to get at least a couple of wickets.
The only instance he provided a bit of width and was on the fuller side, Duckett drove him. And in the first instance, he sprayed a bit down the leg-stump line, and he tickled him for a couple of runs.
Once the two openers perished, Bumrah gained the rewards for his first spell. Harry Brook had watched Bumrah take the ball away from the left-hander delivery after delivery, so when he faced the seamer in the first over of his second spell, he committed to play him. But Bumrah has too many recipes. So he went with an outswinger, and the extra bounce – caused by his ability to hit the deck hard—meant Brook could only edge to Rohit Sharma at first slip.
Jasprit Bumrah of India during the 1st ODI match between England and India at the Edgbaston, Birmingham, England on July 14, 2026. (CREIMAS)
Menacing best
The freshness in Jasprit Bumrah was hard to miss at Edgbaston. Since bowling his heart out on November 19, 2023, Bumrah hadn’t featured in ODIs. With India’s white-ball focus shifting to T20s, he gave everything even if it meant being used sparingly in Tests.
Throughout the summer, Bumrah had been off-colour. The speedometer showing his pace had slowed down. But more than a month’s break later, Bumrah showed signs of his old self.
If India had missed one player on this UK trip, it was Bumrah. And before the toss, there were debates on air about whether they would straight away draft Bumrah into the XI. He was returning from a break, after an IPL he would prefer to forget: just four wickets in 13 matches.
A year earlier, before India arrived for the Test series, he had made a hyperbolic statement. “I know what he’s going to do to me, and the good thing about that is I know what skills he has. There’s going to be nothing that surprises me. It’s going to be challenging,” Duckett had claimed.
That’s gotta sting. 😬
Ben Duckett found out the hard way what Jasprit Bumrah’s extraaa pace feels like. ⚡
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Among the many statements that England made in the Bazball era, it may not have been at the top, but on days like this, there are reasons why you may have to revisit it.
With Prasidh Krishna too being spot on with his length and line, England’s start was sedate. Apart from the one boundary that Duckett hit, the next one came via byes, as in the first seven overs, till Bumrah operated, there were 32 dot deliveries. And the moment India brought in Gurnoor Brar as the first change, both Duckett and Bethell went on a usual rampage, taking 38 off the next four overs.
But despite being taken apart, Brar showed why India are beginning to invest heavily in him. With pace and bounce, he can generate movement as well. He cramped Bethell for room with a short delivery, compelled him into a pull that went straight to Washington Sundar at deep square-leg. A delivery later, he made Duckett pick Bumrah at third man, with one that kept climbing and leaving the left-hander in no control of the shot.
Gill brought back Prasidh, who, like Brar, struck twice in the same over. First up was Jos Buttler, whose flick took a leading edge, and Brar held it safely despite a collision with Gill. And by the time Sam Curran slashed one to KL Rahul behind the stumps, India tightened their noose around England.
