India to battle England, injuries, weather and Jasprit Bumrah’s availability at Manchester

Team India are 1-2 down in the series. England have reinforced themselves. Jofra Archer isn’t just back but firing. An injury to Shoaib Bashir might actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise. His replacement, Liam Dawson, is a better spinner at the moment. He’s got over 10,000 runs in first-class cricket as well.

Injury blows to India

Winning at Manchester was, anyway, going to be tough. But as if things were not tough enough, in between the two Lord’s and Manchester, Team India has suffered 3 injury blows. Nitish Kumar Reddy is out of the series with a left-knee injury.

Arshdeep Singh and Akash Deep won’t be available either. The former has a cut on his hand, which will need about 10 days to recover from, which means he might miss the Oval Test as well. The latter has a groin injury and isn’t match fit for the fourth Test.

Nitish had done well with the ball and showed promise with the bat. Team India doesn’t have anyone who can bat in the top six and bowl pace. He’s one of a kind. Akash was India’s third pacer after Prasidh Krishna showed he can’t be among India’s three frontline fast bowlers. His replacement, Arshdeep, is also out.

India has been forced to bring Anshul Kamboj, who hasn’t even made his international debut. There is a number three issue as well; both Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair have failed there. And one of them might have to bat there. If both don’t play, Dhruv Jurel will have to come in. He hasn’t played a Test match in England before.

Bumrah’s last Test of the series

There’s another issue. This is most likely Jasprit Bumrah’s last Test of the series. There is a 3-day break between the fourth and fifth Test. It’s very tough to imagine that Bumrah will play at the Oval. This is India’s last chance. Apart from the fact that they are 1-2, you don’t want to end up losing the series 1-4 after being so competitive in the first three matches.

Bumrah’s shoulder will once again have to carry a lot of weight. And luck hasn’t been on his side. The two matches he’s played, India has lost. And he’s taken a 5-wicket haul in both of them. You can’t expect more from him. This match might be it. India’s last chance to somehow perform a miracle.

But wait, there’s more. Let’s assume India plays out of their skin. And England are on the ropes. The weather can very much save them. On three of the five days, there is a 40% chance of rain in Manchester. If rain deprives a result, it could mean that Bumrah’s third and last Test is wasted.

Team India has their back against the wall. And in the last decade or so, that’s where they have thrived. India were down 0-1 in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy and won the series 2-1 from there. Even in this Test series, after falling to defend 371, they won the match on the flattest surface of the series. Adversity brings out the best of Team India, and everyone would hope that it’s 2-2 when we enter the Oval Test.