"Talk to Bumrah and learn from him" - Senior pacer’s scathing assessment on Team India bowlers after ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test

Veteran Indian pacer Mohammed Shami expressed displeasure at Jasprit Bumrah's support bowlers' performances in the first Test against England in Leeds. In their first Test match after the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, India produced excellent batting displays in both innings with scores of 471 and 364, respectively.

However, despite Bumrah's incredible spell of 5/83 in the first innings, England amassed 465, reducing India's lead to only six runs. On the final day, the hosts comfortably chased down 371 by conceding no wickets to the ace pacer and capitalizing on the other Indian bowlers.

Talking about the side's five-wicket defeat in the series opener on his YouTube channel, Shami said (via News18):

"In bowling, other Indian bowlers should talk to Bumrah and learn from him. They should talk about planning with him and support him. If they will support Bumrah, then we can easily win the match. If I talk about the first match, then I think we need to do a little work in the bowling."

"Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna picked up two wickets each in the 2nd innings, but by the time Shardul dismissed two England batters, the match was out of India’s reach."

He added:

"Everyone says that batting in England is difficult, but our batters are doing fine, and we need to think more about bowling and fielding. Bumrah ka saath dena hoga. It is very important to take wickets with the new ball. Bhut zaruri hai ki Bumrah ka koi saath de. England won the first Test because we gave too many easy runs. We need to find out how to make our bowling side strong."

The other three pacers, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Shardul Thakur, combined for match figures of 9/482 at an economy of over 5.20. Meanwhile, India's lone spinner, Ravindra Jadeja, struggled for penetration with figures of 1/172 across the two innings.

"At this level you can’t drop easy catches" - Mohammed Shami on India's fielding

Mohammed Shami blamed India's shoddy fielding and poor catching for their first Test defeat at Leeds. The visitors dropped several catches in the match, including giving reprieves to opener Ben Duckett, who scored 62 and 149 in the two innings.

The dismal bowling and fielding efforts meant India became the first team in Test history to lose a match after five individual centuries with the bat.

"We dropped a lot of catches, and we need to work on it because at this level you can’t drop easy catches and do misfielding because the match can slip, which eventually did as well," said Shami (via the aforementioned source).

India have failed to defend 370+ scores in back-to-back Tests against England in English conditions, dating back to their defeat in the final game of the 2021/22 series at the Oval. Shubman Gill's men will look for a bounce-back performance in the second Test at Edgbaston, starting July 2.