ONLY a few days into his stint with the senior side, Haryana pacer Anshul Kamboj was given a big responsibility to open the bowling with Jasprit Bumrah in the fourth Test here at the Old Trafford Ground on Thursday afternoon.
With the surface still offering some assistance to the bowlers and overcast conditions, the Indian bowlers were expected to make an instant impact. Unfortunately, it turned out the other way round as they erred in their line and lengths to allow England to have a flying start.
Pace spearhead Bumrah was supposed to be their go-to bowler but for a change he looked off target on most of the occasions. Mohammed Siraj too fed England openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley on their pads helping them get easy runs. Shardul Thakur, who was hardly used in the first match despite picking two wickets in the second innings and was subsequently dropped from the side, looked out of place once again as he turned out to be the most expensive bowler for the team.
However, what surprised everyone was the decision to hand the new ball to Kamboj. Bowling his first over in international cricket, Kamboj was smashed for boundaries thrice by Duckett. He continued for the next two overs giving away 17 runs from his first three overs. He was soon replaced by Siraj in the eighth over but returned soon replacing Bumrah, who by then had bowled five overs giving away 22 runs, in the 11th over. But only after two overs, Thakur replaced him.
Notably, Kamboj is a kind of hit-the-deck bowler who tries to extract extra bounce off the pitch that in turn makes the ball rise sharply on to the batter. With overcast conditions and the surface offering some assistance, India needed him to seam the bowl around but he erred in line and lengths making it easy for the English batters. He was either bowling on the legs or pitching it too close to the batters helping them to either dispatch the ball on the leg side or drive with ease.
During the Lord's Test, Akash Deep, who earlier was ruled out of the match due to groin injury, opened the bowling with Bumrah in the first innings. Siraj replaced him in the second innings as he along with Bumrah got the new ball. In the Edgbaston Test in Bumrah's absence, Akash Deep and Siraj carried out the responsibilities in both the innings. Bumrah and Siraj did the job for Shubman Gill and Co in the first match at Leeds.
Kamboj was assigned with the task in the fourth match but unfortunately he could not maintain a tight line and length giving batters a free hand in his first two spells. Besides, his speed of around 130kmph, didn't help his cause either.
A 24-year-old playing his first international match is bound to have nerves but easy runs he gave away in the beginning laid the foundation of a big total for England. Kamboj, however, in his third spell sent back Duckett, who was six runs shy of his century, to earn his maiden international wicket but by then the hosts had already inched towards the 200-run mark inside 40 overs