AUS vs IND: Jasprit Bumrah not getting enough support big reason to worry for India

Jasprit Bumrah is one of the best without a shred of a doubt. Bumrah is at the peak of his powers, giving batters nightmares in broad daylight. Bumrah is at a stage of his career where he makes the ball talk like a magic wand. There’s no running away from Bumrah, who smells blood and is ready to pounce on his prey like a cheetah whenever he has the red cherry in hand.

But Bumrah isn’t a tireless robot; he’s a human made of blood and flesh, prone to errors. He is a match-winner, but is it fair to expect him to pull off single-handed efforts every other time? In Perth, Bumrah shot down anyone and everyone who came in his way to pull off one of the greatest heists in the history of Indian Test cricket.

Bumrah became the Player of the Match in the Perth Test, but does that mean India can depend on him with closed eyes in Adelaide and the rest of the Test series? On Friday, Bumrah bowled 11 out of 33 overs. Is it fair to expect Bumrah to shoulder that much workload in the series, let alone the Adelaide Test?

After India were bowled out for 180, it again was Bumrah who drew first blood, getting rid of Usman Khawaja. Bumrah also squared up batters, beating them on the outside edge plenty of times. But apart from him, the rest of the Indian bowlers did not look on their mark.

If Bumrah was building pressure from one end, the others failed to maintain it. Consequently, Australia finds themselves only 94 runs shy of India’s 180 in the first innings.

AUS vs IND, 2nd Test Day 1: Highlights

Bumrah is a mentality monster the world is aware of. But, what about the other bowlers? Mohammed Siraj got carried away with his emotions after Marnus Labuschagne pulled out midway from his stance in the Australian innings.

There were clear signs that Siraj wasn’t in the right frame of mind, leading him to vent out. There were way too many loose balls down the leg side that led the Aussie batters to keep the scoreboard ticking.

‘Make the batters play’

In Perth, the Indian bowlers attacked the stumps, bowling 31 percent of the balls on the stumps with only 10.9 percent outside off. On Friday, they bowled only 20.3 percent of balls on the stumps, and 21.3 percent outside the off stump.

In Perth, the Indian batters forced the Aussie batters to play, making them play false shots. In Adelaide, the Australian batters got enough chances to see off the new ball, get their eyes in and gauge the nature of the surface.

Although Khawaja could not make his start count courtesy of Bumrah’s brilliance, Nathan McSweeney and Labuschagne put their heads down to absorb the pressure and go to the end of the day’s play unscathed.

Former batter Sunil Gavaskar did not mince words in saying that the Indian bowlers haven’t used the pink ball to good effect.

“They have to make the batters play as much as they can. You can set them up by bowling a couple of deliveries outside and then get the ball to nip back in. The Indian bowlers have not really used the pink ball as well as they should have,” Gavaskar told the broadcasters.

Big role for Ashwin

Gavaskar also said that R Ashwin, one of India’s leading Test wickets, has to chip in for India. Ashwin was held back by skipper Rohit Sharma and was introduced only in the 32nd over, the penultimate over of the day’s play.

“He will have a role to play. Anybody who has got more than 500 wickets will have a role to play. If not taking wickets, keeping a lid on the scoring and giving a bit of rest to the quicker bowlers,” Gavaskar added.

The last time Ashwin played a Day-Night Test in Adelaide, he finished with figures of 18-3-55-4 in the first innings, taking the wickets of Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green and Nathan Lyon.

In Perth, India pulled off a Herculean act to claw back into the game. In Adelaide, India again find themselves in a hole with Australia threatening to take the match by the scruff of its neck. After struggles with the bat, time hasn’t yet run out for the bowling unit to drag India back in the hunt.

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