Lord’s Test: James Anderson’s refusal to accept Jasprit Bumrah’s apology fired up team: R Sridhar

The refusal of veteran pacer James Anderson to accept an apology from Indian seamer Jasprit Bumrah after the end of the 3rd day of the Lord’s Test excited the Indian players, which ultimately helped the visitors win the match on day 5, says fielding coach R. Sridhar.

Rubbing India the wrong way backfired on England as they went down by 151 runs on the final day after spirited performances from Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj at Lord’s on Monday.

In a video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin and Sridhar discussed what Anderson told Bumrah as the latter targeted the England cricket legend with 90mph deliveries. Anderson was irked by the barrage of bouncers he faced from Bumrah during England’s first innings and wanted to give it back to the Indian pacer.

“Hey mate! Why are you bowling so fast? Am I doing the same to you? All this while you were bowling in the 80mphs and suddenly on seeing me why are you bowling in the 90mphs?”

Ashwin, reacting to Anderson’s statement, said: “That kind of statement coming from Jimmy Anderson was a surprise to me.”

“So after the innings, the boys were walking back to the dressing room. Then, Bumrah walked past Jimmy and just patted at him, so as to tell him that it wasn’t intentional. We all know Bumrah, he is such a nice guy. So he had gone to talk to him and end the matter, but Jimmy brushed him aside,” R Sridhar explained.

“Brushing him aside, he told him, “You bowl only 85MPH to the other batters, you are bowling 90 MPH to me. This is cheating, I won’t accept,” Anderson added.

“That got the team together. Not that the team wasn’t together before. It sparked/ignited a fire in everyone. The effect of that was visible on day 5,” explained Sridhar.

Ravi said: ‘If we can give them target or 180, we can get them under pressure’,” added Sridhar.

The third Test starts on August 25 with India leading the five-match series 1-0.