On the second day of the first Test match against England at Headingley, India’s star bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, engaged head coach Gautam Gambhir in a heated discussion in the dressing room. The incident, which was captured on camera, featured Jasprit Bumrah voicing his opinions following a demanding session in which he kept the visitors in the match by himself without assistance from his fellow bowlers.
With centuries from Shubman Gill (147), Rishabh Pant (134), and Yashasvi Jaiswal (101) earlier, India had amassed a solid total of 471. The hosts’ response got off to a lacklustre start as Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Zak Crawley in the opening over. In the meantime, England’s second-wicket duo of Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope stitched a strong 122-run stand to get them back into the game, while Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, and Shardul Thakur appeared to be struggling in their periods.
India’s bowling has previously appeared to be highly dependent on Jasprit Bumrah.
The 31-year-old took all three of the English wickets that fell that day, making him the lone bright spot in India’s bowling effort. In addition to using an inside edge to dismiss Crawley and then Duckett, he also got rid of Joe Root for the tenth time in Test cricket. During his bowling, he notably laid down two chances in the field: Jadeja dropped Duckett earlier at gully, and Yashasvi Jaiswal lost Pope at third slip.
So Gambhir is so clueless with his tactics that he needs Bumrah to sit beside him and guides what should be approach from now onwards for this match..#INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/Mbb2ScrPS3
— MK (@mkr4411) June 21, 2025
The Pope sustains England’s hopes
Pope took full use of his lifelines and scored an undefeated hundred runs by stumps. The hosts ended the day at 209/3, 262 runs behind, thanks to his innings and Duckett’s 62.
With the exception of Bumrah, Indian bowlers had trouble with line and length, which made it easy for the English hitters to find scoring opportunities. Similar trends were seen in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year. Thus far, the ongoing Headingley Test has revealed a well-known blueprint.