Jasprit Bumrah turns the series into two – when he's bowling and when he's not

You could see the weather coming at Headingley, there were billows of grey rain clouds out to the south, creeping slowly up towards the back of the Football Stand. And you knew something wicked was on its way in England's innings, too.
The rain arrived right around the time it was supposed to begin, when Jasprit Bumrah was there waiting for them at the far end of his run, tossing the ball from one hand to the other, wearing a forbidding grin. England's openers, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, were so slow walking out to join him in the middle that it felt as if they were hanging on word of a last-minute pardon.
They got one, or a reprieve at least, when the umpires called for the ground staff to bring on the covers. Crawley and Duckett had made it a few yards past the boundary and they retreated so quickly that they had already disappeared by the time Bumrah turned on his heels to look for them. India made a point of lingering in the middle and even sent their squad players out to kick a football around during the rain break just to make the point that the conditions were not so bad as all that.
Unless you had to bat in them. It is thankless job bowling when the sun is out on a pitch like this, but at least you do not have to open the innings against the best quick in the game under floodlights in the spitting rain. Crawley, wide-eyed and pale-faced, rose to the occasion like a game young subaltern following the major's order to lead the men out of the trench. He lasted all of six balls. He was utterly beaten by the first one Bumrah aimed in at him, which straightened after it hit the pitch and ricocheted away off the edge of his bat.
Bumrah beat Ollie Pope with a similar delivery, only this time the edge fell in between the slips and raced to the boundary. He ought to have got Duckett, too. He had him dropped twice, once at slip, once at gully, and then beat him all ends up with a wicked yorker that hit him just outside the line of leg stump. That was all in the space of nine balls. Duckett was so very keen to get himself away from Bumrah's end that he nearly ran himself out trying for a leg bye when a delivery from Mohammed Siraj bounced off Pope's pads through to Rishabh Pant.
Then, the worst of it passed. Just like the weather. Bumrah made way after five overs and Pope and Duckett drank up India's change bowling like men who had just come to the first pub on the far side of the desert. Then Bumrah was back on. In his second spell he blew apart Duckett's stumps with a ball that nipped and slipped off the inside edge of a wildly ill-advised drive and had Pope dropped at second slip. He shouted in frustration after that catch went down. His back is giving in and he only has so many deliveries left in him. India are not so blessed with bowling they can waste so many of them.
The fielders finally held on to one in his third spell, when he had Joe Root caught at slip. Then in the final over he bounced out Harry Brook with what turned out to be a no ball. By stumps, he had taken three for 48, and it could easily have been double the first number. His teammates managed none for 149 between them.
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It already feels as if there are going to be two series going on this summer, one when Bumrah's bowling and one when he's not. England's chances are a a lot better in one than they are the other. Fortunately for them, Bumrah's already said he expects to be able to play three of the five games. The series may turn on whether England can take good advantage of the other two. It also feels as if they will need one of their fast bowlers back if they are going to keep up with India, whether it is Jofra Archer, who should be fit for the second Test, or Mark Wood, who says he is targeting the fifth.
Because right now, bless Chris Woakes, England's bowling all looks a little bit milquetoast. Ben Stokes dug his team out of trouble here by bowling 20 overs and taking four for 66, which is surely a deal more work than the medical team would like him to be doing at this point in his career. Otherwise, for a team who have 12 fast bowlers on contracts, plus four more who have been in one Test squad or another sometime in the past 12 months, their bowling has looked pretty thin this season.
They are a good team, but they are missing the extra ingredient that might make them a great one. The attack needs a splash of Tabasco, to give it some of that heat Bumrah brings to India.

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