VVS Laxman reflects on Bumrah’s performance against New Zealand

While New Zealand bundled India out for just 217 on day three of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, the Indian bowlers were expected to repeat the same dose to the Kiwi batters on a bowler-friendly wicket at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. But instead, the Indians managed to dismiss only two batters and New Zealand finished the day with 101 on the board.

Over the past few years, the performance of the Indian pace bowlers has improved a lot with regards to skillset, but only to now fall marginally short against the New Zealand batters. What hurt the experts and fans the most is the bowling performance from India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who could not get a single wicket in his 11 overs.

Former India middle-order batter VVS Laxman explains why Bumrah was off-color and what mistake he did. “I was surprised that Bumrah was not able to change the length which is required to be effective in English conditions” he said.

“You want the batsman to drive the ball through covers in these conditions. You want to create that chance by getting that outside edge,” Laxman told Star Sports.

Sanjay Bangar reckons the bowlers should have bowled full and wide from the crease

It was not only Laxman who felt the pace bowlers were not up to the mark, as former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar felt that they need to alter the lengths and try to bowl a lot fuller if they want to keep New Zealand batters below 217. Apart from Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson, there are still decent amount of batters to follow as the likes of Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, and Colin de Grandhomme are all very good batters with the ability to grind it out in the middle.

“Yeah I agree with Laxman. Ishant was able to derive the maximum swing and seam. For the majority of his cricketing career, Ishant has always been an inswing bowler. When an inswing bowler tends to go closer to the stumps, then he loses that swing quite a bit.“

The first session of day four was completely washed away due to rain. Taylor and Williamson are at the crease with the score reading 101/2.