BGT 2024-25: No Bumrah, no party for India! When will India go beyond?
Xtra Time Web Desk: No Jasprit Bumrah hence no party for India! India's 10 years old domination of the iconic Border-Gavaskar Trophy came to an end as India faced another heavy defeat against Australia.
Playing on Day 3 of the final Test match in Sydney, India just surrendered to the Australian batting line-up as the hosts chased down the target in just 27 overs. The over dependence on Jasprit Bumrah was so evident in the scoreboard as it allows many questions to be asked.
Jasprit Bumrah's terrific tour of Australia came to an unexpected end as India's ace bowler was forced to leave the field on the previous day due to back spasm and couldn't come back in action on Day 3. In the absence of Bumrah, the whole bowling unit looked so clueless and was nowhere in the competition.
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Mohammed Siraj returning on Day 3 started with 5-wides in his first over as the bowling attack turned out as a new year gift for Australia. Chasing 162 runs, Australia were 50/1 in 6 overs, the only positive was youngster Prasidh Krishna who managed to pick up wickets of Marnus Labuschange and Steve Smith just before Lunch.
After lunch, everything went against India as Travis Head and Usman Khawaja took the match without wasting any time. Although Khawaja got out scoring 41 but it couldn't change anything for India. The Indian side seemed as they had accepted their fate earlier.
If we talk about the cause of India's series loss. The fact that stands above all is India's poor batting performance throughout the series. Bowlers could defend the total if they had a proper score to defend but they had nothing. Only twice in the series India batted more than 100 overs in a single innings which looks very odd in longer format.
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On the same page, Jasprit Bumrah the only bowler from Indian camp looked solid and kept fighting. The over dependence on him is doing nothing but making India losing many matches. While Akash Deep got ruled out from the final Test of the series, Bumrah's body broke down in Sydney after bowling a record number of overs in the previous Test match in Melbourne. Jasprit Bumrah, who is known for consistently bowling above 140 KMPH, dropped himself down to 125s, after simply failing to cope with the added workload.
India needs to sit and think about strategies for batting and bowling as well. Selection of the team needs to come out properly as well and most importantly India needs to stop depending on a single player and make it a 'group efforts' to get out of this ugly looking results but when India will? All eyes will be on that!
