Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin gave Jonny Bairstow a fiery send-off after Jasprit Bumrah sent him out LBW on Monday, in the first evidence that the India-England Test series is heating up like past ones.
The dismissal came only four balls after India delivered the visitors a major blow by returning the in-form Zak Crawley, who was hitting well at 73.
Bairstow then missed Bumrah’s massive booming in-swinger after appearing comfortable against the length balls outside the off-stump. The umpire raised his finger, and just as he was about to move away to talk to his partner, Ravichandran Ashwin yelled something in his face, and Bairstow responded.
Watch the video below.
Bairstow sought a review, but it did not change his destiny since the ball-tacking revealed Umpire’s Call on striking the stumps following two reds on contact and pitching. He became the sixth English wicket to go for 196 runs while chasing 399.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s brilliance puts him close to 500 Test wickets milestone
After struggling in the first three innings of the series, India’s premier off-spinner appeared back to his best on Monday. Ravichandran Ashwin used the around-the-wicket angle against England’s right-handed hitters, attacking both edges of the bat by pitching the ball on the middle stump and angling it.
He made the odd one bounce, which led in the dismissal of last match’s hero Ollie Pope, who edged one for a wonderful catch by Rohit Sharma in the slips. Then, Ashwin absorbed several hits from Joe Root, who came out swinging but top-edged a massive slog (thanks to the additional bounce) for a simple high catch at third man.
The wicket brought two new batsmen, Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes, to the crease.