When Rohit Sharma was obliged to jab quickly at a ball from Akash Deep that stayed low at the Melbourne Cricket Ground practice facility on Sunday morning, he guffawed, “Yeh toh Kotla wicket jaise hai.”

Setting an example

It is tough to overlook Jasprit Bumrah, even when he is not chasing batters down. He talks to everyone and spends time with his friends, joking with Abhimanyu Easwaran and giving Dhruv Jurel fist bumps. His grin remains fixed as he starts his walk-in, but it vanishes as he erupts in the direction of the bowling crease. He puts on his game face for that little period, and the outcome is often disastrous.

In this Test series, Bumrah has kept India alive almost entirely on his own. If the Indians had been given a 1-1 score line going into the last two games before the first Test in Perth on November 22, they would have jumped at the chance. The paceman extraordinaire’s 21-wicket exploits, which included his five-fer in the first innings of the first Test when India set up a lead of 46 despite being shot out for 150, are the reason they are in this predicament today.

For the last month, Bumrah has dominated every discussion. Whereas his teammates are obviously admired, respected, and proud to have him on their squad, the Australians talk about him with awe, veneration, and maybe even a hint of terror. All of India’s top-order batsmen, who are having trouble with consistency and form, must be happy that their only encounters with him take place in the practice nets and that “outs” at training mean nothing more than humiliation. However, being “dismissed” by the industry’s top talent isn’t a sign of weakness, is it?

Nathan McSweeney could not have asked for a more challenging beginning to his Test career, but he may one day surpass the greatest. At the beginning of the series, the 25-year-old South Australian skipper, who is basically a No. 3 hitter, was thrust into the opening partner position for Usman Khawaja. However, after a poor performance that included 72 runs from six innings, he was fired. One of the reasons McSweeney has been replaced by 19-year-old Sam Konstas for the previous two games, in Melbourne and Sydney, is that Bumrah has got his number four in the 66 deliveries he has bowled to him.

Jasprit challenges Konstas.
In the pink ball one-day match in Canberra earlier this month, Konstas, an explosive and aggressive batsman, hit a magnificent century against Indians. He was also a member of the Australian U-19 World Cup winning squad. He has stated his ambition to compete against Bumrah, and at some point over the next week, his dream will be fulfilled. In the first three Test matches, Bumrah has dismissed Khawaja, Steve Smith, and Marnus Labuschagne four, three, and two times, respectively. Australia will be hoping he has more success against the Indian vice-captain.

In this series, Bumrah had the most absurdly impressive stats: 21 wickets, average 10.90, economy 2.60, and strike-rate 25.1. However, even he has unable to conquer the Travis Head hurdle. His immediate objective will be to outsmart the Australian No. 5, who has been a major obstacle for India throughout the series.