Jasprit Bumrah has been sensational in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy thus far but the same can’t be said for the rest of India’s pace bowling lineup
While there have been concerns over the health of the Indian batting lineup in Test cricket for a while, their problems in the pace battery was also exposed in their recent 10-wicket loss to Australia. While fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been a handful for the Australian batters to deal with, there was a significant drop-off in quality whenever he was taken out of the attack in the Adelaide pink-ball Test. Australia wicketkeeping great Adam Gilchrist pointed this out after the match ended early on the third day.
Jasprit Bumrah had an injury scare during the second Test(AFP)
“Coming into the series, the uncertainty for India was what the support act for Bumrah is like,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket’s The Follow-On podcast. Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana did well as a supporting act to Bumrah in the first Test in Perth, which India won by 295 runs
‘They weren’t upto the level in Adelaide’
Siraj returned figures of 2/20 while Harshit Rana recorded 3/48 in the first innings in Perth. In the second, Siraj returned 3/51 while Rana returned 1/69. Bumrah had 5/30 and 3/42 and won player of the match for his efforts. The difference was much more glaring in the second Test. While both Bumrah and Siraj took four wickets in the first innings, the former went at an economy of 2.65 while Siraj went at 4. Rana got now wickets in the first innings for 86 runs. Australia only had 19 runs to chase in the second innings.
Overall, Bumrah has picked 10 wickets at an average of 9.20 while the rest of the Indian bowlers have picked 11 wickets at 42.09. “Siraj and Rana did a really good job in Perth, but they just weren’t up to that same level in Adelaide. That still is the glaringly obvious part of that discussion. Bumrah is at a certain level, and the rest of them aren’t quite there,” said Gilchrist.
