India’s stand-in skipper, Jasprit Bumrah kickstarted his captaincy era with a cool response during a pre-match interview after England captain, Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Friday. He has been leading India for the first time in any format.
Jasprit Bumrah suggested a correction to the presenter Mark Butcher when the former England batter remarked that Jasprit was the first pacer to lead India in Test cricket. Bumrah instantly said that this was not the first time that a fast bowler was leading the Indian Test side, as Kapil Dev had captained the national men’s cricket team before.
England have won the toss & elected to bowl. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/KYG4yBEeTG
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) July 1, 2022
Mark Butcher, in a bid to control the damage, said that Kapil Dev was an all-rounder but Bumrah had made the right point in his correction. Bumrah is the first fast bowler after Kapil Dev to lead India in the longest format of the game. Kapil led India’s Test team from 1983 to 1987 and picked up 111 wickets with four five-wicket hauls to show for his efforts.
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After losing the toss, Jasprit Bumrah said, “It’s a good feeling, a massive achievement, it can’t get better than this, very excited. Very happy with the preparation, wanted to get used to the England weather [at Leicester]. just the mental aspect.”
With skipper Rohit Sharma ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19, Jasprit Bumrah has become 36th Test captain of Team India. Shubman Gill is the only specialist opener while Shardul Thakur as seamer all-rounder has been preferred over veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
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India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah(c)
England (Playing XI): Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes(c), Sam Billings(w), Matty Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson
