By Khurram Habib
New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS): Indian pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah's angle at the crease, which is different from other bowlers, as well as his speed makes him a difficult bowler to face, said England batsman Dawid Malan.
The England No. 3 batsman, who was recalled to the Test squad for the third Test against India at Headingley and made an immediate impression with 70, says in jest that the best way to keep Bumrah out is by getting off strike.
"Get off strike. I guess that will be the only way not to face him," said Malan to IANS during an interview.
"He has obviously been fantastic. He has got a really different angle to the crease to other bowlers. You know he bowls 90 miles per hour when he wants and he can hit you on the head and knock your poles out as well if he wants to," added Malan.
"So, he is a really challenging bowler to face. You know it (the best way to counter him) is about to trying to minimise certain ways to get out to him. And hope it is your day and you can get on top of it. He has been fantastic so far," said Malan further.
The left-handed batsman, who made 31 in the first innings of the fourth Test and then grinded for five off 33 balls in the second innings before being run out, does not regret not being aggressive despite the strong 100-run start the team had through the openers.
He, however, admitted that the batsmen did not put enough pressure on Indian bowlers and did not score enough runs in the first innings.
"You don't win the game in the first hour of the day. By batting for two sessions is what earns [you] the right. We as a team probably didn't do that well enough. Yes, you have to put pressure on the bowlers. You have to find ways of scoring. There are different ways to win games. Looking back at it, India bowled fantastically well to win. We probably lost that game by not scoring enough runs in the first innings on a really good batting pitch. That put us under pressure on the last day," said Malan.
The 34-year-old batsman returned to Test cricket in the ongoing series after a gap three years. In the interim, he was earmarked only as a white-ball cricketer. Malan said it can be tough to switch to white-ball cricket from Test cricket.
"It can be tough at times. Fortunately for myself, I see myself more as a traditional batsman. I don't think I am a massive slogger of the ball. You know when I train for my white-ball cricket, I put a lot of emphasis on the basics. If I can do the basics really well, I believe I can play white-ball cricket really well. That is my template to cricket. I work a lot on that. It has helped me so far," explained Malan on the sidelines of joining GoNuts social media platform.
"The toughest challenge has been mentally going from facing 30 balls and influencing the game to having to bat for six hours and influencing the game. That is the challenge of Test cricket. That is what you need to do to become successful to score lot of runs and not make mistakes a lot of the time. That is the biggest challenge," said Malan.