Masterful Jasprit Bumrah the true architect of India’s triumph

The bowler who bamboozled England is one of the few players thriving in all three formats and is likely to get even better

The signs were there, if you wanted to see them. England’s batsmen emerged for the start of day five full of vigour and hope, buoyed by their unbeaten start the previous evening and a crowd that believed, against the weight of history and perhaps its own better sense. The first run was greeted like a divine blessing. The first boundary from Rory Burns was roared every inch of its way to the rope.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Jasprit Bumrah was quietly completing a spell of four overs for three runs. It was a day on which cricket’s master of disguise took on at least half a dozen guises: talisman, calm head, tail-end intimidator, new-ball craftsman, reverse‑swing guru, yorker‑summoning necromancer. All that, though, was still to come. And here, with the target still distant and the required rate rising, Bumrah was slowly, incrementally whittling down England’s chances of victory.