"I felt he held back a little there" - Former India all-rounder slams Jasprit Bumrah's performance in ENG vs IND 2025 Tests

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has opined that Jasprit Bumrah didn’t quite live up to expectations during the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The five-game series concluded in a 2-2 draw on Monday, August 4, with India securing a thrilling six-run win in the final match at the Kennington Oval in London.

In a video posted on his YouTube channel, @officialIrfanPathan, on Wednesday, August 6, Pathan pointed out that Bumrah didn’t quite push himself enough. He cited the Lord’s Test as an example, where the ace pacer delivered a five-over spell but didn’t return for a sixth, even though Joe Root had just arrived at the crease, a batter Bumrah has dismissed frequently. The 40-year-old commented:

“There were moments, like when a sixth over was needed. I spoke about this during commentary as well. 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.”

“To be fair, whenever he played, he did perform. He took a five-wicket haul and got his name on the Lord’s honours board. But when you are the number one bowler, there’s an expectation of number one-level performance, and I felt he didn’t quite live up to that,” he added.

Pathan rated Bumrah’s performance six out of ten, pointing out that India failed to win any of the Tests in which he featured during the series. Pathan said:

“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.”

“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, and Bumrah didn’t take a single wicket, which was a bit surprising. And this didn’t happen just once,” he continued.

Bumrah played three matches in the series, picking up 14 wickets in five innings at an average of 26.00 and a strike rate of 51.28, including two five-wicket hauls to his name.

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“The way he finished the final Test match was commendable” - Irfan Pathan praises India pacer’s Oval heroics

In the same video, Irfan Pathan also rated Prasidh Krishna’s performance six out of ten but praised the right-arm seamer’s showing in the Oval Test. The 29-year-old returned figures of 4/62 and 4/126 across the two innings, playing a key role in India’s thrilling win in the final Test. Reacting to Krishna’s performance, Pathan said:

“Prasidh Krishna. He gets six out of ten, especially for the way he bowled in the last Test match. Before that, he faced a lot of criticism. Many times, it seemed like his length was too short, and he was struggling to find the right length early on. Eventually, he was dropped.”

“But the way he finished the final Test match was commendable. He showed character, and it now feels like he’s ready to take his cricket to the next level. The way he set up Ben Duckett’s dismissal was a great example. He bowled short balls to push him on the back foot, then pitched it up and got him caught in the slips,” he added.

Pathan continued:

“Overall, his bowling was impressive. He also used the yorker effectively and even bluffed cleverly. If you noticed, he gestured to the batsman as if he would try to guide it toward third man and asked for a fielder there, but then bowled a yorker instead. That kind of thinking and control is very important, and he showed he has it. I could have pushed him to a seven, but due to the lack of consistency earlier, Prasidh Krishna gets six out of ten.”

Overall, Krishna played three matches in the series, picking up 14 wickets at an average of 37.07 and a strike rate of 45.00.