ENG vs IND 2025 | ‘I love bowling with the Dukes ball’ - Jasprit Bumrah gears up for the England tour

With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announcing their retirement ahead of the marquee five-Test series against England in June, Jasprit Bumrah, along with KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, will have the added responsibility of guiding the side in transition during a tough tour. The speedster, who made a comeback with Mumbai Indians during the Indian Premier League 2025 after getting injured during the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier in the year, will be key to India’s prospects in the series which kicks off at Headingley in Leeds on June 20.

Bumrah was the top wicket-taker in India's last tour to England in 2021-22, picking up 23 wickets from five matches at an average of 22.47 and a strike rate of 48.78. In the England tour before that in 2018, he had 14 wickets from three matches. The pacer, who is currently ranked number one among Test bowlers in ICC’s latest list, will once again lead India’s pace attack and hope to prove a handful for England batters with the Dukes ball and conditions favouring the quicks.

"Playing in England is always a different challenge," Bumrah was quoted as saying to former Australia captain Michael Clarke on the Beyond23 cricket YouTube channel. "I always love bowling with the Dukes ball.

"But I don't know how much the Dukes ball is doing right now because there's always constant changes to the ball. But the weather, the swinging conditions. And then when the ball becomes soft, there's always a challenge. So I always look forward to playing in England."

With England continuing their tryst with Bazball this season too, scoring close to 500 runs in a single day in their one-off Test against Zimbabwe last week, the Indian pacer feels there is always a chance for the touring bowlers to run through the home side.

"They're playing an interesting style of cricket which is interesting because I don't really understand it too much," Bumrah said. "But as a bowling unit, we always feel confident that when the batters are being ultra-aggressive, on a given day, anybody could run through and get wickets."

However, Bumrah will not be able to play all the Test matches for India since he is managing his workload after returning from a back injury and that might have weighed on the selectors’ minds when Shubman Gill was chosen as India’s new Test captain to lead the 18-member side in England. The pacer believes that it is important to understand the body in the long run and the key will be to decide on what matches or tournaments are important. 

"Obviously, it is tough for any individual to keep playing everything for so long," he said. "I've been doing it for a while, but eventually you have to understand where your body is going, what is the important tournament."

"You have to be a little selective and smart about how you use your body. As a cricketer, I would never want to leave anything and always keep on going. But I don't set goals or look at numbers. whenever I have [set goals], I've never been able to fulfil them.

"I just try and enjoy because that's why I started this sport. Take one day at a time and collect memories because, at the end of the sport, that's all I'll remember,” he concluded.