NEW DELHI: Australia’s lessons from the Perth defeat are evident in their batting approach at Adelaide Oval, where they have smartly recognised the lack of consistent support for India’s bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and decided to see him off to minimise the damage.
Bumrah bowled 11 overs on the first day, and the Australian batters were happy to give him the respect, scoring just 13 runs in his spell, while limiting him to just the wicket of Usman Khawaja (13) despite bowling in pink-ball-friendly late-evening session under the lights.
We can get back in the game with a few tweaks: Ryan ten Doeschate
With Mohammed Siraj not at the top of his form, India’s bowling attack hasn’t looked incisive whenever Bumrah is out of the attack, even though Harshit Rana gave a good account of himself in Perth.
Australia’s changed approach towards Bumrah in Adelaide has shifted the load to other bowlers in the playing XI; and that’s why India are feeling Mohammed Shami‘s absence in the second Test. Rana, Siraj and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy are the other pacers in India’s eleven for the pink-ball game.
Shami, who made his return to competitive cricket recently after a long rehab following his ankle surgery, is currently playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy back home and being closely monitored by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) medical team and the BCCI selectors.
According to a Cricbuzz report, one of the selectors and NCA staff were recently in Rajkot to assess Shami’s fitness, which led to speculations that the speedster might be put on a flight to Australia at some stage during the five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy.
In a long series, teams have to manage the workload of their key players, and vice-captain Bumrah is a prime asset that India can’t expect to lose or rely heavily on every time he goes on the field, even though he hardly ever fails to deliver. He’s already amassed 11 wickets in the series, after his match-winning eight-wicket haul in Perth.
Coming back to bowl on day two of the Adelaide Test on Saturday, Bumrah took two more wickets to dismiss Nathan McSweeney (39) and Steven Smith (2) and took his tally to three in the contest, while keeping India in the game. But the fact that skipper Rohit Sharma used Bumrah for just four overs in the entire first session shows that he, too, is mindful of overloading his premier bowler.
On the other hand, Australia’s approach of playing Bumrah safely helped Marnus Labuschagne in particular, who arrived in Adelaide under the pump for lack of runs. He dug in to first go to stumps on day one unbeaten and then completed his half-century in the first session on Saturday to get some confidence back.
Labuschagne was later dismissed for 68 by Reddy while attempting a loose cut shot that was caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the slips.
If India don’t get the Shami boost or other pacers in the squad don’t stand up to support Bumrah consistently, this could be a major mind-battle going Australia’s way.
