Jasprit Bumrah has been in and out of the Indian set-up and last played for India in September 2022, with his back injury troubling him India suffered a humiliating thrashing at the hands of Australia in the second ODI of the three-match series at the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
Mitchell Starc’s devastating spell, as he picked up his ninth 5-wicket spell, and openers Mitchell Marsh (66 not out) and Travis Head’s (51 not out) smashing unbeaten 121-run opening partnership helped Australia thrash India by 10 wickets to level the series 1-1.
After the match, Rohit Sharma was asked about the absence of pacer Jasprit Bumrah at the post-match press conference.
The Indian captain said that Burmah’s injury and his subsequent absence is something that the team is used to now.
- “Bumrah has been absent for more than eight months now, the guys and the team are very much used to it. It is very hard to fill Bumrah’s shoes.
- We all know that, he is a quality bowler but now that is not been available for us. Let’s not just keep thinking about that,” Rohit said.
- “We have to move ahead and guys have taken the responsibility pretty well Siraj, Shami, Shardul, we have got Umran and Jaydev as well,” he added.
In fact, the right-arm pacer has been in and out of the Indian set-up and last played for India in September 2022, with his back injury troubling him over the past few years. Rohit had earlier admitted at the post-match presentation that India’s batters never managed to apply themselves with the bat.
“It is disappointing. No doubt about that.
We didn’t play to our potential. We didn’t apply ourselves with the bat. We always knew that was not enough runs. It was not a 117 pitch at all. By no means. We just didn’t apply ourselves.”
“(Starc) is a quality bowler. He’s been doing it for years for Australia with the new ball. He kept bowling to his strength and we kept falling to his strength. That’s something that we need to understand and play accordingly. All their bowlers bowled really well and put us under pressure,” said Rohit in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Mitchell Starc ran through the India batting lineup in Visakhapatnam with a five-for as India were reduced to one of their lowest ODI totals at home. India were skittled out for a mere 117 in the second ODI of the series, recording their second-lowest team score while batting first at home.
As Starc put on bowling exhibition, India must have missed their star pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah hasn’t played a game for India since September 2022. A recurring back injury that first took him out of action after the India tour of England last year, ruled him out of the T20 World Cup in Australia and has put a big question over his fitness ahead of the ODI World Cup later this year.
Skipper Rohit Sharma said that the absence of pacer Jasprit Bumrah is something that the team is used to now.
“Bumrah has been absent for more than eight months now, the guys and the team are very much used to it. It is very hard to fill Bumrah’s shoes. We all know that, he is a quality bowler but now that is not been available for us. Let’s not just keep thinking about that.”
“We have to move ahead and guys have taken the responsibility pretty well (Mohammad ) Siraj, (Mohammed) Shami, Shardul (Thakur), we have got Umran and Jaydev (Unadkat) as well,” he said.
Talking about Sunday’s match, Rohit said the players did not apply themselves well during the first innings wherein they were shot out for 117 in just 26 overs.
“We did not bat well. It was not the pitch where we could have gotten out for 117. We didn’t apply ourselves. When you lose a couple of wickets early, it’s important to create a partnership or two so that you can get back into the game.”
“When you have only 117 runs on the board, the (opposition) batters have nothing to lose other than to come and try and swing the bat,” Rohit said.