India not carrying any baggage from New Zealand whitewash: Jasprit Bumrah

India are not carrying any baggage from their whitewash against New Zealand, said Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India begin their tour of Australia with Perth Test on Friday, 22 November. India are coming into the series needing 4 wins if they are to directly qualify for the World Test Championship Final.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the opening Test match in Perth, Bumrah pointed to the beauty of cricket, stating that the game is such that every team starts from zero on a new day, regardless of a win or a loss, the day before.

“Even if you win, you start from 0. If you lose, you start from 0. That’s the beauty of cricket. Obviously, when we won the World Cup, it didn’t mean we would become complacent in other series. That’s how I am looking at. Obviously, we were disappointed and down that we had a tough series last time. But, we are not carrying any baggage. We come with a fresh mindset, and different opposition. And we come to learn from the changes that have happened in the team. We are not carrying any baggage from India. We are trying to be positive and play good cricket,” Jasprit Bumrah said ahead of the Test match.

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Things are going to be tough for the Indian team, given the absence of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill in the opening Test match. While Rohit is on paternity leave, Gill fractured his thumb in training ahead of the opening Test. In place of Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah will be captaining the opening Test match, marking the first time in this rivalry that fast bowlers will be at the helm of both teams.

Virat Kohli will be in focus throughout the Test series due to his sensational record in Australia. Kohli has 6 hundreds Down Under and will be hopeful of a good run despite his horrific outing against New Zealand. Kohli scored just 93 runs in the 3 Tests against the Kiwis, where the team lost 0-3.

India slipped away from the top spot in the World Test Championship rankings after their loss to New Zealand, however, they will be hopeful of repeating their 2018/19 and 2020/21 heroics in the ongoing tour.