There was enormous pressure on the standing Indian captain for the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 at the Optus Stadium in Perth, Jasprit Bumrah, in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who was out of the contest due to the paternity leave for the birth of his second child.
Having elected to bat first on a spicy and bouncy surface, the expectation for Jasprit Bumrah would have been to put his feet up for the rest of the day, but he didn’t have the luxury after seeing his side getting shaken up for four wickets in the first session of the day’s play. By the end of the day’s play, he needed to walk out in the middle with the bat in hand.
India was under immense pressure, having been bundled out for 150 in their first innings of the game, with the most contribution coming from the lower order, consisting of the wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant and the debutant pace bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy. 20-minutes later, the Ahmedabad-born had a job with the ball in hand.
The two openers of the home side opened the account of the team on the very first ball with a single. But he soon sent back the debutant opening batter Nathan McSweeney for ten runs, who was nailed on to the pads by an in-swinging delivery. On the very next ball, Jasprit Bumrah found the outside edge of Marnus Labuschagne, only for Virat Kohli to fumble the catch at first slip.
The veteran pacer kept on going for his seven-over opening spell, making the batters’ life the hardest to go through. With the left-handed Usman Khawaja coming onto the bat, the 30-year-old changed the angle and soon extracted the outside edge of the bat.
Classic Jasprit Bumrah receives praising words from Mitchell Starc
In came Steve Smith, who has always enjoyed the bowling attack of the Blue Brigade, carrying an average of over 65 with multiple centuries and fresh from the century he made against the same opposition in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-2023 at the Kennington Oval in South London.
The first ball was needed to be right on the money, and Jasprit Bumrah, with another in-swinging delivery, trapped Smith plumb before the stumps on a golden duck, only the second instance of the batter registering that score since 2014 against Dale Steyn.
The left-arm seamer of the opponent side, Mitchell Starc, has praised the seam position of the Indian pacer and how he has worked on his action to get the maximum of help from the surface.
“Maybe, he’s got a fair bit of hyperextension in, that elbow and does things, a lot of actions, one that you do. So, there’s no surprise that he’s been a fantastic bowler across the formats for a long time.” The New South Wales pacer addressed at the end of the day’s play.
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“And again, his skills were on show today as to how, how good he is. So, yeah, I’m sure there’s something in that release point. That’s significant to his action. It’s something a lot of people can’t do, so I’m not, I’m certainly not going to go and try it. I’ll probably snap.” Mitchell Starc noted.
Jasprit Bumrah, on his very first ball of the second day’s play, found the edge of Alex Carey to pick his second five-wicket haul in Tests down under to finish with superb bowling figures of 5/30 in 18 overs, which earned a vital 46-run lead to the visiting team.