Posted by England achieved a couple of things at Headingley. Most obviously, they won – but they also did so while compelling Jasprit Bumrah to bowl really quite a lot of overs. That’s an investment that might pay dividends later in the series.
Unleashed!
It’s easy being a really good batter because all you have to do is bat a lot, whereas it’s tough being a really good bowler because you’re inevitably asked to bowl a lot.
“I think there are certain spells where he can just unleash a little bit more,” said Joe Root – infamously – midway through England’s 2019 ‘Bowl Jofra Archer To A Broken Standstill’ project.
In the early part of his Test career, Archer bowled like a man who didn’t believe in tiredness. On one occasion, he delivered 22 overs of out-and-out fast bowling and then from his 23rd over onwards cranked the pace up even further.
Sometimes, as a Test fast bowler, you have to do a bit more work – that’s just the way it is – but this kind of thing is not sustainable in the longer-term. At some point you have to do less. This is not some great secret. Archer’s stress-fractured medical record tells us as much.
He’s actually back in England’s Test squad for the next match, after managing only two Tests in the last five years. Who knows whether he’s even now over all of this.
“We need a breakthrough here”
At the start of this year, Jasprit Bumrah played all five Tests against Australia, but halfway through the last one his back spasmed and said no.
These guys can bowl quickly when they’re tired, but it’s not just a matter of finding the energy. A good breakfast and a line of espressos won’t heal muscular microtrauma or tiny cracks in your bones. Without a longer rest, the body’s weakest link will continue inching towards its breaking point.
In short, there are only so many times you can say, “Can you warm up please, Jasprit? We need a breakthrough here.”
Shubman Gill will tell you that the first Test of this series was a very, “Can you warm up please, Jasprit? We need a breakthrough here,” kind of match. It wasn’t just that his premier quick was electrifyingly good – that much is a given – it was that two of his other seamers were for the most part stultifyingly bad.
If your main man reckons he’s probably only got three Tests in him, maybe four, the above is not a good equation to grapple with. Long term strategy may well tell Gill that he should be giving Shardul Thakur another over, but his short term tactical sentiments might well overrule on the grounds that doing so will most likely cost six runs with zero chance of a wicket.
So who instead? Prasidh Krishna? That probably feels much the same.
‘When did Jasprit last turn his arm over?’ Gill thinks to himself. ‘He must be fresh again now, right?’
Notably (given the Michael Vaughan link in the middle there), that lanky streak of piss was one of several commentating culprits questioning why Bumrah wasn’t being driven relentlessly into the ground every time he was afforded some respite.
And whilst my blood is hot, can someone explain something to me – Phil Tufnell?
On something slightly different…
Who paid the third umpire in the West Indies vs Australia test to make some really quite, seriously, very poor, god-awful, decisions against Chase (lbw, but ball deviated off the bat) and Hope (caught behind, but no need to describe this clanger once you’ve seen it). I expect a third at some point, not in favour of the West Indies.
Match can be watched live on Ytube to admire the cr*ppy third umpire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxOCMZeMZ2g. ..and the video usually stays up after end of play so one can see the really quite, seriously, very poor, god-awful, umpiring decisions for oneself.
Erf!
…and there’s potentially number three where Green could/should have been out lbw. TV umpire not doing too well.
…not that it mattered much in the end.
…and why do I still look like a toilet? Is the interweb trying to tell me something.
Who paid the third umpire in the West Indies vs Australia test to make some really quite, seriously, very poor, god-awful, decisions against Chase (lbw, but ball deviated off the bat) and Hope (caught behind, but no need to describe this clanger once you’ve seen it). I expect a third at some point, not in favour of the West Indies.
The International Cricket Council
Couldn’t get that link to work. Watched a highlights thing on YouTube, which only showed the Chase wicket – definitely room for doubt there.
The highlights thing itself was remarkable. On the plus side, they showed some ‘ordinary’ deliveries and near-misses which have a little context for the wickets and boundaries.
On the minus side, I don’t think a single shot lasted more than 3 seconds in the whole 11 minutes. Scorecards appeared for a second and then disappeared (I guess you’re supposed to pause the video), commentators were frequently cut off half way through words… I feel dizzy! Think I’ll go outside and get some fresh air for a minute
Yes, highlight ‘packages’ are not good these days.
To see the match live, search for “Windies Cricket” in Youtube, it should be the top video. If not, go to the ‘live’ section of the heading thingy. It’s not the first video as that is day 5 (which hasn’t happened here yet, but might have done over there). Obviously look for the day 2 match. One can then search back through the video to see said iffy wickets.
All this is presuming we see the same ytube layout wotsit thingy.
Australia are managing their upper order’s workloads quite well.
Bangladesh also. Three Test series on at the same time! (Even if one of them is a ‘series’ of two.)
Also lots of interesting stuff going on at Lord’s Wednesday and Thursday:
https://ianlouisharris.com/2025/06/26/four-activities-in-24-hours-at-lords-25-26-june-2025/
Aficionados of cricket folk with grand Victorian facial hair will want to jump in to the fourth activity, in particular the link to the Ricardo Album.
Hey, a first time commenter but long term reader and admirer here. I am afraid that this is a total no sequitur, but I am trying to find the article about Shane Warne that says ‘England need 12 runs to win and have all ten wickets in hand. Shane Warne is bowling, and it honestly feels like Australia are favourites.” Or something like that. I tried using the search function, but it doesn’t work, and the filter feature says critical website malfunction. Sorry to bother everyone, but I read it to my dad and he thinks it is one of the great lines, so has chased me up on the article. Thanks in advance
We’ll have a look at the search and filter stuff when we’re back at a computer.
That was actually one of the first things we wrote on cricket, which is why the search feature is letting you down.
https://kingcricket.blogspot.com/2006/01/2-shane-warne.html?m=0
We may have reused it in an upcoming book.
More on Warne if you feel a bit short changed by that:
https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/shane-warne-the-greatest-foe/2022/03/23/
Thanks, I have been trawling through the records for a little while, but couldn’t find it. More pertinently to this article, I have been unashamedly passing off most of your views as my own this week (I am sure they are what I would have come up with if only I had thought for a little longer), so I rather hope when I share the article no one looks at the most reason ones on this site, or I may be rumbled. On the other hand, of course, any opportunity to share this site with someone else is always eagerly seized upon by me, so at least some good will come out of it. By the way, is there any means by which I can stay signed in on the comments section, so I don’t have to put in my details repeatedly? I don’t think it says much for my attention span that I am asking this after just two comments, but I would feel very stupid if I only realised how to do this after ten years of comments (I am confident that this so the minimum time for which I will reply, so I think it would probably be best just to block me in order to save you from good-naturedly enduring my wittering, but still). I shall put my impatience down to being a member of the TikTok generation or something, “it’s not my fault my attention span is so short, honest, it’s just that for some reason everyone cant pay attention to things for longer than ten seconds now, there’s nothing I can do about it”
Not sure about staying signed in. We’re generally logged in, so we don’t really get a reader’s eye view of this. We assumed browsers would save your deets in some way or other.
Thanks for sharing stuff. More of this sort of thing!
I have a feeling long winded comments about nothing in particular will be a feature of my commenting by the way, as I seldom have the energy to rant, or the self control to be concise.
There’s no word limit. Ramble on, as Led Zep would say.