India’s premier pacer and vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah has been carrying the majority of the bowling workload for India in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in Australia, which has highlighted the absence of reliable Mohammed Shami to offer consistent support.
Bumrah’s tally of wickets in this edition of the BGT has risen to 21 at a mind-blowing average of 10.90, including two five-fors and one four-wicket spell, at the conclusion of the drawn third Test in Brisbane. The result at the Gabba has kept the five-Test series evenly poised at 1-1. The third Test in Melbourne begins December 25.
Besides Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj is the only pacer in the Indian squad that has previous experience of playing in Australia. Despite not being at his best, Siraj has given a good account of himself with 13 wickets so far at an average of 23.92.
Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and seam-up allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy are the other fast-bowling options India have. Harshit played in the first two Tests in Perth and Adelaide, while Reddy’s all-round skills earned him a spot in all three Tests so far. Akash replaced Harshit in the Brisbane Test, but Krishna continues to wait for his chance.
Speaking on Fox Sports, former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee hailed Bumrah as ‘world class’ and added that it was “unfortunate” that India don’t have the services of Shami, who returned to competitive cricket in October after almost a year-long absence following his ankle surgery.
“He is world class, Jasprit Bumrah. Unfortunately, they had no Mohammed Shami, but I think the backing of Mohammed Siraj — there has been a bit of conjecture around him — but I think he has bowled really well,” said Lee.
Lee reckoned that such is the quality of Bumrah and his wicket-taking ability that he appears to be bearing the majority of the bowling load, while the squad has good pacers.
“In my opinion, they have an attack that has some good pace bowlers, but the reason why people say or think he is shouldering the whole load of the attack is that he is so good. He is miles ahead of any other bowler, and that is no disrespect to the other bowlers going around, but that is how good he is,” said the 48-year old Lee, who played 76 Tests for Australia and took 310 wickets.
Talking about the possibility of Shami joining the Indian squad for the last two Tests of the BGT, captain Rohit Sharma said, “I think it’s high time somebody from NCA talked about him. That’s our National Cricket Academy where he is rehabbing. Those guys are the ones who need to come up and give some kind of update.
“But look, I understand he’s playing a lot of cricket back home, but there have been some complaints about his knee as well. The last thing you want is the player coming here and then pulling out in the middle of the game. You know what happens when that kind of thing happens,” the skipper said during the post-match press conference at the conclusion of the Gabba Test on Wednesday.