Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar said he won’t be surprised if fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah takes over as the side’s Test captain in near future, citing that he doesn’t pressurise players much when he’s been at the helm of the team.
In India’s recent 3-1 defeat to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Bumrah captained the visitors’ in two games, one of which was a 295-run series opening match in Perth. “He will be the next man, because he leads from the front. He’s got a very good air about him, the air of a leader, but he’s not somebody who’s going to put pressure on you. Sometimes you have captains who put a lot of pressure on you.
“With Bumrah you can see that he expects the others to do what their job is, why they are in the national team, but he doesn’t seem to pressurise anybody. With the fast bowlers, he’s been absolutely brilliant, standing at mid-off, mid-on, and every time just being at hand to tell them. I think he was absolutely brilliant, and I won’t be surprised if he takes over very soon,” said Gavaskar on Channel Seven on Wednesday.
Performance wise, Bumrah was the star of India’s tour, picking 32 wickets in five matches at an average of 13.06 and a strike rate 28.37 to clinch Player of the Series award. Gavaskar felt things could have been slightly different in Sydney for India if Bumrah had bowled in the fourth innings of the match.
Bumrah didn’t bowl in India’s defence of 162 against Australia due to a back spasm. “From the other end, it looked a little bit easier to bat, and I think India probably suffered from the fact that they didn’t have a first-change bowler like Australia had – Pat Cummins and then (Scott) Boland coming in to bowl.
“So there was support for the opening bowlers. Bumrah, unfortunately, was pretty much fighting a lone battle. What a difference it would have made if Bumrah was available to bowl in that final innings in Sydney. Even an early spell of four or five overs, who knows which way the match would have gone.”
Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting talked about how Steve Smith told him about the things that make Bumrah a tough bowler to play against in Tests. “I had a chance to talk to some of the Aussies about what makes it so difficult. I’ve seen Bumrah for a long time. In fact, I coached him and captained him in the IPL when he first burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old.
“But the thing that stood out for me was when you talk to someone like Steve Smith, who’s got a very good method and way of working fast bowlers out, or any bowlers out, for that matter, he said that he just finds Bumrah’s visual cues a little bit harder to pick up than most.
