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Jasprit Bumrah has taken 17 wickets in BGT 2024-25 at an average of 11.52.
Ravi Shastri has spoken about India’s over-reliance on Jasprit Bumrah.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has expressed concerns about India’s over-reliance on Jasprit Bumrah in the ongoing 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, saying on Sunday the pacer has looked like the only Indian bowler capable of getting the Aussies out.
Bumrah picked up yet another fifer on the second day of the Gabba Test. In the first session, he took out the openers Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney in quick succession. Australia’s fourth-wicket partnership of Steven Smith and Travis Head put up a 241-run stand, which was also eventually broken by Bumrah with the second new ball.
He took out Smith first and then Mitchell Marsh and Head in the same over to complete an extraordinary five-wicket haul. The only other wickets came from Nitish Kumar Reddy, of Marnus Labuschagne, and from Mohammed Siraj, of Pat Cummins before Stumps.
“That is the problem. Every spell he (Bumrah) bowls, he is expected to take a wicket,” Shastri told the broadcasters during the day. “We are not even halfway through the series at the moment and that’s the problem. We have got two big Test matches on Boxing Day and Sydney, and he looks like the only bowler who can trouble Australia’s batters at the moment. But how long will we see that?”
Bumrah looked like a one-man army on the day as Siraj looked mostly inconsistent while dealing with an injury. Akash Deep, playing his first Test of the series, drew multiple false shots from the batters but couldn’t get a wicket in return.
After Head’s wicket, the broadcasters showed the most telling stat of the series: the left-hander was Bumrah’s 17th victim in the series at an average of 11.52; all other Indian bowlers had combined to take 19 wickets at almost four times the average of 41.68.
Till the last Test, Australia had had four bowlers taking at least five wickets in the series, despite Scott Boland and Josh Hazlewood playing only one match watch, whereas India had only Bumrah and Siraj do so. Harshit Rana remained wicketless in Adelaide while Labuschagne was only Nitish Kumar Reddy’s third wicket of the series.
- Location :
Brisbane, Australia
