Former England skipper Michael Vaughan said that no other bowler except Jasprit Bumrah, has been able to trouble Joe Root consistently in Test cricket, as he observed on a day when Root went past 150 and then registered his 35th Test century on the third day of the first Test against Pakistan at Multan Cricket Stadium.

Jasprit Bumrah: The Biggest Challenge For Joe Root

Root had eclipsed Alastair Cook to become England’s highest Test run-scorer while in the innings, having already bettered his total of 12,472 runs. Vaughan praised the manner in which Root has been so consistent and said he reads the bowler so well, especially the hand quickly. However, Vaughan pointed out that Bumrah had gone even better for Root, dismissing the England star nine times during their career so far, with an average of 31.8 against him.

“To be as good as he is you have to pick up the ball so quickly out of the hand, which gives him that extra bit of time. The only bowler he does not quite line up is Jasprit Bumrah, I reckon, but who does? He will already be working on that and thinking about how to manage him next summer,” wrote Vaughan in his column for The Telegraph.

In a series that Bumrah led with great prowess at the start of the year against England, he had been dismissed Root three times, and when Root did make a solitary hundred of that series it was in the fourth Test in Ranchi, again a game Bumrah didn’t play in.

Since 2021, Root has been in sensational form, leading all Test run-scorers with 4,755 runs from 50 matches at an impressive average of 57.98, including 18 centuries and 15 fifties. And while he resumes his innings on Day 4 of the first Test at 176, Root will surely be looking to keep the extraordinary form alive.