He wasn't trying to get me out: Anderson on Bumrah's barrage at Lord's

Senior England pacer James Anderson said that Jasprit Bumrah was not trying to get him out during the Lord’s Test where the latter rattled him with a barrage of bouncers.

The Indian fast bowler bowled a 10-ball over mostly comprising bouncers and one of them hit Anderson on the helmet. Words were exchanged and Anderson was not pleased about the Indian’s tactics.

“I got caught off guard a little bit because all the batters coming in were saying how slow the pitch was. Banged in short; it was really slow. When I came out to bat, Joe Root said Bumrah was not bowling as quick as he normally does,” Anderson said on the BBC Tailenders Podcast.

“And then, the first ball was 90 miles an hour and, on the money, wasn’t it? And it felt like, I haven’t felt like this ever in my career. I felt he wasn’t trying to get me out,” Anderson said.

Anderson also said that Bumrah bowled a 10-ball over and was bowling no-balls and short balls continuously. “I think he bowled two on the stumps which I managed to dig out,” he said.

Also read: Then Gabba, now Lord’s, India grow indestructible by the day

The next day Bumrah got the taste of his own medicine, but the Indian handled the England pacers rather well and shared an 89-run stand with Mohammad Shami to set up a big win for the visitors.

R Ashwin, who did not play that game, also spoke about that incident between Bumrah and Anderson.

“England took that Anderson incident very personally. Bumrah said he didn’t even know what happened but all of us got together and told him what Anderson said to him and that riled us up. What happened next was extraordinary,” said Ashwin on his YouTube Channel.

India went on to win the second Test match against England at Lord’s when England was bowled out for 120, and India won the match by 151 runs to script a historic win. The fourth Test match of the series will start from Wednesday at Headingly Cricket Ground in Leeds.

(With inputs from Agencies)