Michael Vaughan alarms Joe Root of Jasprit Bumrah's threat ahead of India Tests

With the upcoming five-match Test series between England and India in 2025, former England skipper Michael Vaughan has made a bold prediction. Vaughan suggested that India's pace sensation Jasprit Bumrah could prove to be a significant challenge for England's batting mainstay, Joe Root, potentially impacting the series outcome.

Root has been in brilliant form during the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, leading the run charts with an impressive 1398 runs from 16 matches at an average of 53.76, including five centuries and six half-centuries.

However, Root's recent failure in the third Test against Sri Lanka, where he scored just 13 and 12 in two innings, resulted in England's eight-wicket defeat. Vaughan emphasised Root's significance to the English batting order.  

“This week really hit home to me how important Joe Root is to this batting lineup. His batting is the key. All these flamboyant players around him get flamboyant fifties. But without the glue at No. 4 getting the huge amount of runs he does, they are knackered,” wrote Vaughan in his column for The Telegraph.

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England have to have ways of succeeding without Root: Michael Vaughan

The former England skipper went on to express his concerns about Root's potential struggles against Bumrah in the upcoming series. Despite Root's impressive record against India, 2846 runs at an average of 58.08 with ten centuries and eleven fifties, Vaughan believes the dynamic could shift in Bumrah's favor. Interestingly, both Bumrah and Root have faced each other in 21 innings, with Bumrah getting Root dismissed nine times.

“He can’t do it every week, and he didn’t do it this week. Jasprit Bumrah enjoys bowling at Root, and could severely limit his output next summer. The same goes for Pat Cummins in Australia, where Root has never scored a hundred. England have to have ways of succeeding when Root doesn’t make big runs. On the basis of this game, they don’t,” he added.