Jasprit Bumrah on Friday made his Test captaincy debut as India took on England in a rescheduled fifth Test match at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The series, four matches of which were played in India, is led by the subcontinent team 2-1. 

England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl. 

Bumrah was promoted to captain India after regular leader Rohit Sharma tested positive for COVID-19. The pacer became the first fast bowler since Kapil Dev to lead the country in Test cricket.

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Batting first, India lost both their openers – Shubman Gill (17) and Cheteshwar Pujara (13) – to James Anderson. They were 53/2 when rain stopped play. 

At the toss, Bumrah announced that India were going in with four full-time bowlers and one all-rounder – Ravindra Jadeja. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin missed out. 

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At the toss, former England batter Mark Butcher, who is part of the broadcast crew for the match, greeted Bumrah by saying, “Congratulations! it’s not often do we have fast bowlers as captains but fast bowlers as captain of India has never happened before.”

However, the India captain immediately corrected him.”Well, it has happened before, Kapil Dev was the captain,” the 28-year-old said. 

Butcher, who played 71 Test matches and score more than 4,200 runs, insisted that Kapil Dev was an all-rounder. 

“Alright, all-rounder if you say so,” Bumrah added. 

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“It’s a good feeling (to be captain) and is a big privilege. Can’t get better than this. Excited and looking forward to this. Very happy with the preparation. Wanted to spend a lot of time and get used to the English conditions, as we came back from T20s. Happy with the preparation, now it’s for the mental side to take over. Four bowlers – myself, Siraj, Shardul and Shami along with Jaddu as the all-rounder,” Indian skipper Jasprit Bumrah said at the toss. 

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India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah(c)