Bumrah shows how to look Australians in the eyes

Has stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah helped India get back into the game after a rather predictable collapse in Perth? It’s too early to tell after the first day of play, but the smiling killer certainly provided a lifeline and sent a strong message to his teammates that this Australian team is not invincible.

To say the first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (now known by its awkward acronym BGT) belonged to the pace bowlers would be an understatement. If India had fallen into the trap laid by the old firm of Cummins-Starc-Hazlewood earlier, then Bumrah, like so many times in the past, dealt a devastating blow to the Australian top order by removing two of his most experienced batters, Usman Hodge. and Steve Smith in one over.

The Australian scoresheet showed a dismal 19/3 by the seventh over, with Bumrah taking all three wickets and his co-conspirators Mohammed Siraj and debutant Harshit Rana striking further to now raise hopes of what could be a first-innings lead despite I scored 150.

He finished the day with stunning figures of 10-3-17-4 and after the day’s play, questions were raised about whether to set the visitors up to boomerang across Australia, exposing their weaknesses in the game despite India’s lack of experienced Mohammed Shami.