India captain Rohit Sharma has lauded his deputy Jasprit Bumrah for the impact he has created with the ball in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Rohit claimed that Bumrah’s impact has been massive in the ongoing series and wants him to continue the same way in the remaining Tests as well.
Jasprit Bumrah has easily been India’s best player of the series so far. The Indian vice-captain has almost single-handedly kept India in the series so far through some brilliance with the ball.
Not only with the ball, Bumrah was impressive with his leadership skills in the only Test he has led India this series. The 31-year-old quick led India in the first Test at Perth in the absence of the regular captain Rohit Sharma and immediately created an impact with eight wickets in the match.
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Rohit Sharma hails Jasprit Bumrah’s skills
Rohit Sharma attended a press conference on Christmas eve where he was asked about Jasprit Bumrah’s performance in the ongoing series. Rohit hailed Bumrah for his massive impact and hopes for it to be continued further.
“It’s nice to see that – a lot of people from the opposition camp talk about him, how (they) need to handle him and stuff like that,” Rohit told reporters.
“Usually those are the discussions that happen everywhere (but) the impact that he’s had on the series so far is massive. I hope he continues to do that because these (next) two games are very important for us,” he added.
The Indian skipper further lauded Bumrah’s belief in his skills and claimed that he doesn’t need to be told much. According to Rohit, the other bowlers just need to keep up the pressure on the batters when Bumrah is in such form.
“How he operates is very plain and simple. He’s got so much belief in his own skill-set that there’s not much discussion that we need to have with him … it makes it easy for me,” Rohit explained.
“It’s always nice to have somebody like him in your team. When he’s at that form, the job of the other bowlers becomes a little easier, all they need to do is try to maintain that pressure,” he added.
Rohit Sharma backs other bowlers to play supporting act
Further speaking on India’s bowling attack, Rohit Sharma also feels that the other bowlers need to step up and play a proper supporting role to Jasprit Bumrah. However, he accepted that Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, and the other bowlers are trying hard and have been a tad unlucky at times.
“Bumrah is certainly making the most of it. Siraj and the other guys who are bowling around him obviously know they need to step up to get the job done as well. They’re trying really hard,” the Indian skipper mentioned.
“They’ve been a little unlucky as well, a lot of plays and misses, certain opportunities have gone down as well – those things can happen. For me as a captain, my messaging is very plain and simple – keep running in hard and keep doing what you’ve been doing. They’ve done the job in the past, it’s about doing it again now,” he elaborated.
Jasprit Bumrah’s brilliance
Jasprit Bumrah is the highest wicket-taker of the series with 21 wickets in three Tests at an average of 10.30. He has been the saving grace for India in this series as he has performed consistently well.
Bumrah has constantly troubled Australia’s top order with his outstanding skills and even had a role in Nathan McSweeney’s ouster from the squad after the initial three Tests. Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj is India’s next-best bowler with 13 wickets in three matches.
The bowling line-up clearly relies heavily on Bumrah and the other bowlers need to step up if India are to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Akash Deep showed promise in the last game and will be expected to do better at the MCG.