ENG vs IND 2025: 'He was below expectations' - Irfan Pathan unhappy with Jasprit Bumrah's 'pick-and-choose' style

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan elaborated on why he would rate Jasprit Bumrah's outings in the recently-concluded five-Test series against England a 6/10 performance. Bumrah played a total of three out of the five Tests in the recent series against England, while being rested for the other two.  

Irfan felt Bumrah did not contribute enough as a senior member of the team despite being expected to.

"Bumrah will get six out of ten. Why? The reason is that when you're a senior player, there is a lot of responsibility on you to win matches. He played in three Tests, and India didn't win any of them. There were moments, like when a sixth over was needed (third Test); I spoke about this during commentary as well," shared Irfan in a video on his YouTube channel. 

Irfan was critical of the way Bumrah was utilised in the entire series in general.

"Joe Root had been dismissed by him 11 times, and in that Lord's Test, Bumrah bowled five overs. Just one more over, the sixth, could have pushed harder. I felt he held back a little there. There was also some pick-and-choose, which I've always been against, and that was visible too," he added.

Irfan points out Bumrah's underwhelming display in latter half of first Test

The ex-Indian cricketer felt Bumrah did not apply enough pressure in the second innings of the series-opening game at Headingley, where the right-arm pacer went wicketless in the 19 overs in the second innings.

“Let's go back to the first Test. He took five wickets in the first innings but didn't get a single wicket in the second innings. At that crucial time, when your main match-winner is expected to step up and win the game, it's up to him to find a way, whether it's over the wicket, around the wicket, yorkers, slower balls, bouncers, to create pressure. In the Leeds Test, we didn't see that pressure being built. England ended up scoring heavily.

Interestingly, both the matches India won in the series were missed by Bumrah. They ended up retaining the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy by clinching the final match at the Oval by a thrilling six-run margin.