Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has backed Jasprit Bumrah to take over the Test captaincy baton from Rohit Sharma soon. In Rohit Sharma’s absence, Bumrah led India to a 295-run win against Australia in the opening Border-Gavaskar Test at the Optus Stadium, Perth.
When Rohit decided to stood out after poor run of scores, Bumrah led the team in the final Test match at the SCG but the visitors suffered a six-wicket loss.
Meanwhile, Bumrah was brilliant with the ball as he scalped 32 wickets in five Test matches at an astounding average of 13.06 against the Aussies. Thus, the gun fast bowler was awarded Player of the Series for his exemplary performance.
Sunny Gavaskar said on 7Cricket, “He will be the next man, because he leads from the front. He’s got a very good air about him, the air of a leader, but he’s not somebody who’s going to put pressure on you. Sometimes you have captains who put a lot of pressure on you.”
“With Bumrah you can see that he expects the others to do what their job is, why they are in the national team, but he doesn’t seem to pressurise anybody. With the fast bowlers, he’s been absolutely brilliant, standing at mid-off, mid-on, and every time just being at hand to tell them. I think he was absolutely brilliant, and I won’t be surprised if he takes over very soon,” he added.
Gavaskar noted that Bumrah lacked support from the other end as he was the lone warrior whereas Australia came up with a collective bowling show.
“From the other end, it looked a little bit easier to bat, and I think India probably suffered from the fact that they didn’t have a first-change bowler like Australia had – Pat Cummins and then (Scott) Boland coming in to bowl.”
“So there was support for the opening bowlers. Bumrah, unfortunately, was pretty much fighting a lone battle. What a difference it would have made if Bumrah was available to bowl in that final innings in Sydney. Even an early spell of four or five overs, who knows which way the match would have gone.”
Mohammed Siraj picked 20 wickets in five Test matches at an average of 31.15.
Bumrah will look to make a solid comeback after recovering from a back injury.
