England vs India: Jasprit Bumrah's cunning ploy undoes Rory Burns for duck

The high-octane five-Test series between India and England got underway in Nottingham’s Trent Bridge on August 4, and with that did the second cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.

Both the teams raised plenty of eyebrows by their selection choices as India included Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj in the playing XI, dropping premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and veteran pacer Ishant Sharma, while England did not field even a single designated spinner, with only skipper Joe Root and all-rounder Dan Lawrence’s part-time spin in the offing.

India, who lost openers Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal to shin injury and concussion, respectively, went with a new-look opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Meanwhile, at the toss, Indian skipper Virat Kohli (once again) did not call correctly, leaving his fans unsurprised this time. Notably, India lost each one of the five tosses on their last tour of England in 2018.

Jasprit Bumrah provides the visitors with an ideal start

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah initiated the proceedings for India in the Pataudi Trophy on an ideal note as he cunningly rapped Rory Burns on the pads to send him back for a five-ball duck in the very first over after England asked India to bowl.

Bumrah’s ploy to bring the ball slightly in worked to perfection after the previous delivery had just gone past Burns’ outside edge, angled away from the batter off a length. However, the dismissal delivery was an inswinger that was pitched slightly up than the previous one, and Burns failed to put his bat behind as it crashed straight into his pads. A couple of noises did tempt him to review the decision, only for the ball-tracking to show ‘umpire’s call’, which was out.

Notably, Bumrah ended a brief wicketless rut with his opening-over strike in Nottingham as he failed to strike in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton’s Ageas Bowl last month, while he was not used much in the fixture before that (third Test at Ahmedabad during England’s tour of India earlier this year), where Bumrah bowled just six overs across both innings without any success.

India start the Test series with a bang.

Live Scorecard & Videos: https://t.co/5eQO5BWXUp#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/dqKg5gHnoh

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 4, 2021