I think he wasn’t trying to get me out: James Anderson on Jasprit Bumrah’s relentless bowling

India’s gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah welcomed James Anderson to the crease with a barrage of bouncers in the first innings of Lord’s Test. Bumrah bowled quick and he was right on the money as he targeted Anderson’s body. The England veteran fast bowler was not at all impressed by the same and exchanged a few words when he was walking off the field.

Anderson feels Bumrah wasn’t trying to get him out and instead hurt him by the barrage of bouncers. Bumrah had bowled with his tail up and had elevated his speed while bowling to Anderson.

In fact, R Sridhar, India’s fielding coach and Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that Anderson complained Bumrah bowled 90 mph to him whereas he was bowling in the 80 mph to other batsmen.

Speaking to Tailenders podcast, Anderson said, “I got caught off guard a little bit because all the batters coming in were saying how slow the pitch was,” said Anderson. “Banged in short; it was really slow. When I came out to bat, Joe said Bumrah was not bowling as quick as he normally does. And then, the first ball was 90 miles an hour and on the money, wasn’t it? And it felt like, I haven’t felt like this ever in my career. I felt he wasn’t trying to get me out.”

“I felt he wasn’t trying to get me out. He bowled an over, maybe 10, 11, 12 balls. He was bowling no-ball after no-ball, bowling short. I think he bowled two on the stumps which I managed to dig out. So for me, it was just about trying to survive that and get Joe back on strike.”

On the other hand, a lot of cricket experts believe that England got carried away and veered off the track while bowling to Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah as they were more focussed on verbal battles. However, Anderson doesn’t think England let the emotions get the better of them.

“Potentially the emotion can get the better of you at times. Bu, I thought the way we bowled in the second innings was pretty much the opposite. We took the emotion out of it. We just focused on the process of bowling them out, keeping the runs down.”

England would aim to make a solid comeback but they have suffered another blow as Mark Wood is ruled out of the third Test due to jarred shoulder. The third Test match will take place at Leeds, Headingley from August 25.