Solving Bumrah conundrum key to tantalising series

Fast bowler's slingshot action has proven tricky for everyone - even Joe Root - but fitness problems mean India will have to manage their prized asset carefully

- Ali Martin

If there was an enduring image from the last Test series between India and England, it was probably that of Jasprit Bumrah detonating Ollie Pope's stumps in Visakhapatnam - a feet-seeking yorker so ridiculously sweet that the Food Standards Agency could have marked it red on their traffic-light system.

A year and a bit on from England's 4-1 defeat in India, Bumrah remains the standout in the two attacks going into the first of five blockbuster Tests, beginning at Headingley today. Even saying this sells him a bit short. Of the 86 bowlers to go past 200 Test wickets, none have done so at a lower average than Bumrah's 19.4. Only Kagiso Rabada, with a strike rate of 38.9 to Bumrah's 42, takes his wickets more regularly.

The numbers only improved during Bumrah's last outing with a red ball, too, with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia last winter returning 32 wickets at 13 runs apiece - one for every 28 deliveries he lashed down.

His remains one of the most remarkable actions in the sport, a gentle trot of a run-up followed by a slingshot explosion that asks the batter an absurd number of split-second questions. "It's awkward to face," said Ben Stokes yesterday. "Especially when you first go in, for those first couple of balls."