Follow UsUntil a week ago, an Indian bowling unit with Jasprit Bumrah was deemed ordinary.
Why? That bowling unit couldn’t defend 370 at Headingley. It became worse for India when reports suggested that Bumrah would be rested for the second Test.
“This is a very important match, they’ve had a week off. I'm a little surprised Bumrah is not playing this game. It should be taken out of the player’s hand,” Shastri said on Sky Sports after the toss.
The various debates on television added more spice to the already spiced-up conversation. There was a huge cry (including me) on how India missed the biggest trick by excluding the x-factor Kuldeep Yadav.
Everything in the press was all about that.
But what everyone missed was Akash Deep.
In all honesty, the 28-year-old was coming on the back of a horrendous IPL season, where he averaged 76.33, and his economy rate? 12.05. Leading up to the five-match Test series, he hadn’t played a lot of red-ball cricket either, coming after a long-term injury that kept him away.
Ahead of the second Test, India’s bowling coach, Morne Morkel’s most important task was this: increasing the 28-year-old’s workload, something that was happening behind the scenes during this whole Bumrah saga.
The Bihar-born had never played in England before, not even club cricket. Even the greatest of cricketers sometimes struggle in England, and more so, in the current climate where the conditions are perhaps the flattest in the country’s cricketing history.
If you discounted this, there was even a bigger worry: how about understanding the angles?
And then, enter the workhorse, Akash Deep.
Safe to say, in his first outing here in England, the 28-year-old has ticked it all off in just 20 overs during the first dig. He didn’t waste one minute, as he immediately opted to go round the wicket for the dangerous opener Ben Duckett. Five deliveries later, he plotted Duckett’s downfall to the T, as the ball jumped off the length and seamed just away.
He’s not the most threatening of bowlers when he’s jogging and delivering the ball, but his biggest weapon lies in his ability to deceive the batters and induce a false shot.
In his eight-match Test career, that’s one huge thing that has stood out.
The 28-year-old has already induced 26.5% false shots in his Test career, the sixth-most for any pacer in the red-ball format since his debut. The four above him? Scott Boland, Matt Henry, Jasprit Bumrah, Kagiso Rabada and Josh Hazlewood - all elite, experienced red-ball pacers.
But for someone in his eighth Test, it is mighty impressive. Unlike Bumrah, there aren’t any idiosyncrasies around Akash Deep. He follows the most clichéd of all cricketing phrases - keep it simple, and by that, we mean - target the stumps.
It is the most underrated skill set in the current cricketing climate for a pacer.
Since 2024, only three bowlers (min 50 overs) have hit the stumps more than the Bihar-born (29.1%) - James Anderson (41.6%), Nathan Smith (33.1%) and Bumrah (30.6%). And possibly over Siraj as well, the leader for India in Bumrah’s absence, even when it is the easiest thing to do for a bowler.
Against the top four, that number jumps up to 27.6 - even more than Bumrah’s 27.4.
What do you get in return when you give him the new cherry and combine all of this? Labubu, aka monster. Not just in this series, it has been an overall theme of Akash’s short Test career.
"I think that's one of the golden rules here in England: asking questions on the stumps. So for these sort of conditions in the UK, it suits his style. And coming back from injury and seeing him running in with high pace, it's a nice sign for us,” Morkel praised Akash Deep.
The arm-pacer has scalped 18 wickets of top-four batters, averaging a staggering 21.3, striking every sixth over, which, if you know Test cricket, is an incredible feat. Shockingly enough, he’s just played eight Tests for India (including this one), which means he isn’t getting the opportunity to battle with the big five.
But he’s made the cherry talk whenever opportunities have presented themselves.
“When I was in India, I thought that the conditions would be good and it would swing in England. But when I landed here, it was like a dhoka [betrayal] for me, as the wicket was flat. However, I’m used to conditions in India, so it wasn’t a big deal. I just stuck to my strength,” Akash Deep told Pujara on Sony Sports.
While his strength lay in hitting the stumps far more than the other bowlers, what worked excellently in his favour was his understanding of angles - something that has made the likes of Cummins, Anderson and Broad - legends of the game.
During the second innings of the same Test, that understanding led to the 28-year-old removing the world’s best Test batter presently, Joe Root. The ball was delivered from a wide angle, and it swung in before seaming away and hitting the top of the off-stump.
Root was stunned, and so was the rest of the world. That skillset will make the right-arm pacer a certainty for the Lord’s Test, a venue where angles are perhaps the most important of all things.
"Using the crease. It's crucial. It's a skill and an art that every Test match bowler should have," Broad applauded Akash’s skillset.
"Every bowler should have it really. I mean, how I used to sort of view it was: a batter will always line up the same to you. If you can change your release position by a couple of inches at a time, they're not necessarily turning their shoulders or their feet position. So that little movement can be that half-bat-width distance that can catch the edge or make them miss it and hit the stump," said Broad.
The simplest thing in cricket, but with the most complex art possible, mystifying Akash Deep, like there’s a ray of aura around him.
10/187 in his first-ever Test in England, the pacer might just be destined for greatness.
For Mohammed Siraj, he’s the horse.
For India, he’s the horsepower.