India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah revealed he asked his fellow bowlers to not be desperate after they were bowled out for an under-par score of 150 runs in the first innings of the opening Test match against Australia at the Optus Stadium, Perth.
India registered a huge win of 295 runs, which is their largest win in Australia in terms of number of runs. Meanwhile, Indian bowlers were right on the money and Bumrah led from the front as he was the chief destroyer of the Australian batting line-up.
The Indian captain returned with impressive figures of 5-30 as he accounted for Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Alex Carey. Furthermore, Bumrah bagged 3-42 in the second essay to help his team clinch a resounding win.
Bumrah was well supported by Mohammed Siraj and debutant Harshit Rana. Siraj picked five wickets in the match whereas Rana scalped four wickets. All-rounder Nitish Rana also accounted for Mitchell Marsh in the second innings whereas Washington Sundar dismissed Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon.
Jasprit Bumrah said in the post-match press conference, “The message was that sometimes when you are bowled out for a lower score, you can be a little too desperate and you could go pole hunting. So that was the message that when you try too much over here, it doesn’t really help and the run-scoring goes high.
“So the message was, we will be nice and disciplined and we will make run-making as difficult as we can. Because that is what has worked in the past over here as well. And when we are able to do that, that gives us a lot of success.”
Bumrah gave credit to his bowlers for bowling in the right areas to reap rewards and not go gaga over the extra bounce in Perth.
“Usually in Perth, there could be a scenario where when we come from India, the bounce is not as prominent as what is here. So you tend to bowl a little short, you can get excited by the bounce and you can’t find the length. It looks good when you bowl a back of length delivery and the batsman gets beaten, but the batsman is still there.
“So you have to find the right length. And as I said, we knew that if you make them play more, there is enough in the wicket to give us assistance. So we were focussing on our strengths. We, as a bowling unit, do get a lot of dismissals with bowled LB(W) and caught behind. So we realised that you have to stick to your strengths and find the right length over here. And we were able to do that.”
The second Test match between Australia and India, which will be a pink-ball game, will be played at Adelaide Oval from December 6 onwards.
