The irony is that England were back to full strength with the bat today. With the ball, they were missing four star players – Woakes, Archer, Wood and Rashid. But not even that lot could have defended a total of 110. The three returning superstars – Bairstow, Root and Stokes – made just seven between them off 23 balls. Jos Buttler played a captain’s innings, rather in the style of Joe Root in the bad old days of the Test side, but when he was out for 30 off 32, the game was up.
So England have one job at Lord’s on Thursday: to win. Which looks a long shot as Rohit Sharma’s India’s are playing murderously well, winning all three non-dead white-ball games by massive margins. Jasprit Bumrah wanted vengeance after the Test, and he got it.
If you’re just back from work expecting to settle down to some cricket, I’m afraid you have only Bumrah to blame. Thanks for your company, and we’ll hope to see you again on Thursday for le crunch.
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And the player of the mismatch is ... Jasprit Bumrah! “When I bowled my first ball,” he says, “I saw some swing. If there is no swing, you pull your length back. When the ball is doing something, you don’t have to try too much.” He credits Mohammed Shami, who got the ball swinging in the first over, so they discussed it and agreed to go fuller. “I told him there will be a day when he runs through the side.”
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