Batsmen will be running scared of Bumrah: Kohli
MELBOURNE: India captain Virat Kohli says the world’s top batsmen will have reason to fear Jasprit Bumrah after the talented young paceman put Australia to the sword in the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Bumrah, named Man-of-thematch after India’s 137-run win, dismissed Pat Cummins (63) to pick up one of the last two wickets required on Sunday and finished with career-best figures of 9/86, the biggest Test haul by an India quick in Australia.
Bumrah now leads the series with 20 victims, three more than Australia spinner Nathan Lyon, heading into the fourth and final Test in Sydney, where the visiting side will aim to secure India’s first series win in Australia.
Having only made his Test debut against South Africa in Cape Town in January, the 25-year-old from Gujarat finishes a stellar 2018 with 48 wickets from nine Tests at an average of 21.02.
Kohli said Bumrah was a man “obsessed” with his cricket and convinced of his ability to conjure wickets on any surface. “He thinks, ‘How can I make a breakthrough for the team?’ Your mindset separates you from the rest and he’s as strong-headed as I’ve seen anyone in the past,” Kohli said. “And that’s the key to his success. What I’ve seen in the last 12 months is the way he has matured in Test cricket and the way that he is bowling so soon, so quickly in his Test career, I think is a very scary sign for all the batsmen around the world.
“I mean, in Test cricket if there is a pitch like Perth, I wouldn’t want to face Jasprit Bumrah, to be honest, because once he’s on a roll he can really crank it up.”
FLEXIBLE PUJARA
Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t exactly have a great tour of Australia in 2014-15 but the Saurashtra batsman has ramped it up this time. He is now topping charts after three Tests with 328 runs with two hundreds in team’s winning cause.
“Pujara has been a lot more flexible in altering his game very quickly. From the last time he played in Australia, he has made a few changes to his set-up, and that’s working for him. He is embracing the fact that if something has been told to him and he has to work on those things, he has worked on it,” Kohli said.
With a bowling attack that can get 20 wickets in any conditions, Pujara’s role becomes even more crucial reckons Kohli.
“And now that we have the bowling attack that we can rely on to get us 20 wickets and his role becomes even more crucial. If he can bat time and hold one end, and all the other batsmen can bat positively around him, we get 350, touching 400, in conditions in Australia, which puts us in a great position to get a result.”