Bumrah in high spirits as he prepares for Lord's return

Old ball or new ball was the question from India bowling coach Morne Morkel. "I'll definitely take the new ball," Jasprit Bumrah said as he searched for the right one out of the Dukes box. A few minutes later Bumrah was appealing animatedly on bent knees, raising both hands, having induced what looked like an outside edge from Karun Nair with a delivery that seamed away viciously from good length.

Bumrah last bowled on June 24, the final afternoon of the first Test at Headingley. He bowled 43.4 overs in that Test, picking up a five-for in the first innings and going wicketless in the second. Having been advised to play only three out of the five Tests in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy due to his back issues, Bumrah opted out of the second Test in Birmingham. That decision received heavy flak as critics feared India could go down 2-0 with England taking advantage of an inexperienced bowling attack.

With those fears not coming true and India drawing level with a dominant victory, Shubman Gill's team arrived for their first training session at Lord's on Tuesday wearing a relaxed look. None more so than Bumrah, who has been chirpy and playful right from the first day of the tour. After observing Nitish Kumar Reddy delivering an outswinger at good pace, Bumrah quipped "good one, Brett Lee." At one point Shardul Thakur would bow towards Bumrah's feet as if he was paying obeisance as the pair shared a light moment.

With ball in hand, though, Bumrah's intensity never dipped. He bowled for close to an hour without a break. It did not matter to him that several of India's batters were resting and this was just optional training. Those absent included Gill, KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar apart from Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, the new-ball pair that won India the Edgbaston Test. But Bumrah tested the patience and the skills of Nair, B Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel as he worked his way back towards playing his second Test at Lord's, a venue of which he has fond memories.

On his first visit during the 2021 tour, Bumrah played a key role in India winning a thriller. He scored a duck and went wicketless in the teams' first innings, but in the third innings Bumrah cobbled together a match-turning, unbroken 89-run partnership for the final wicket with Mohammed Shami to help India set a challenging target. He then returned to pick up three wickets including those of Rory Burns in the first over of the chase, England's talisman and captain Joe Root, and Ollie Robinson with that mesmerising offcutter delivered from around the wicket, wide of the crease, in the dying moments of the final afternoon.

The Lord's pitch four summers ago was a relatively flat one in a time of helpful English pitches, but Bumrah still imposed himself, generating reverse-swing and keeping batters guessing with his variations. The forecast for this Test is fair with temperatures in the early 30s (Celsius). On Tuesday the pitch wore a greenish tinge, and India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak expected it to be "challenging". Pitches have never bothered Bumrah. Come Thursday, he will be licking his lips.