Jasprit Bumrah rocked Australia in their own backyard on Friday, producing a fiery opening spell to bring India back after the visitors’ batting failed on the opening day of the first Test in Perth.
Captaining the team in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who is on paternity leave, Bumrah led from the front to rip apart the home team’s top order with a three-wicket burst, which included two wickets off two balls. However, he missed out on a hat-trick.
India, who were bowled out for just 150 on the first morning, needed inspiration to throw a few punches back at the Aussies; and it came from the skipper himself, who once again delivered when the team needed it the most.
Bumrah made the first breakthrough in the third over of the innings, when he struck debutant Nathan McSweeney on the pads, but the umpire shook his head to deny the appeal. Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant wasn’t too sure, but Bumrah said “close hai” and went ahead to signal for a review.
It went in India’s favour, and McSweeney walked back after scoring 10.
Bumrah would have struck again in the same over, but a regulation slip catch off an edge from Marnus Labuschagne’s bat was dropped by Virat Kohli.
In the seventh over of Australia’s innings, the Indian skipper continued to rattle the hosts and jolted them with two wickets in two balls to be on a hat-trick.
Kohli made amends in the slips by safely pouching an edge from left-hander Usman Khawaja’s (8) bat to contribute in Bumrah’s second wicket. And Bumrah struck on the next ball as well to snare the big fish Steve Smith for a first-ball duck with an unplayable full, in-swinging delivery that hit his pad well inside the crease and right in front of the stumps.
The hat-trick ball to Travis Head shaped towards the leg-side as the left-hander tried to flick it but missed. Australia’s score at that stage read 19 for 3.
Debutant pacer Harshit Rana then struck the fourth blow when he cleaned up India’s nemesis of late, Head (11), with a dream delivery that moved away just enough after pitching to beat the bat and peg the off-stump back.
At the time this report was published, Australia were 38 for 4 in 16 overs, with Labuschagne batting on 1 and Mitchell Marsh on 6.
