After the very disappointing series loss against New Zealand at home, India has risen from the ashes like a Phoenix against Australia. In the first test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Perth, India defeated Australia by 295 runs recording the biggest win against the Aussies in the Down Under by India ever. This is by no means a small feat. While it must be taken into consideration that the Toss was a very big factor in the match, to a large extent it was Jasprit Bumrah’s captaincy and expertise in bowling that won the match for India.
After the Test series against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was under scrutiny to a great extent. Especially when the 2nd and 3rd Tests at the MCA Stadium in Pune and the Wankhede in Mumbai were played on spin-friendly tracks which favoured the Indians massively. But India ended up losing both of them. So when Jasprit Bumrah was made captain of the Indian Cricket Team for the 1st Test at Perth ahead of Rohit Sharma, since he didn’t travel to Australia with the rest of the team due to a personal reason, it was a perfect audition for the talismanic Indian pacer.
And he has passed the Audition with flying colours, all the while leading from the front. After India crumbled to a score of 150 in the first innings of the test. Jasprit Bumrah made sure that it proved to be more than an adequate score picking up 5 quickfire wickets proving just why he is the best in the world. Boom Boom bundled out the Australians with the help of Siraj and debutant Harshit Rana for 104. This gave the Indian batters the opportunity to come out and play on a drastically different pitch in their second innings, which was suddenly batting friendly.
The trio of Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli took the game away from Australia by giving a target of 534 before the Indian Pacers snuffed out any lingering hope by the end of Day 4. The excellent performances by all Indian players on the field showed how much of a positive impact Bumrah’s captaincy has had on this team. Not long ago, this team lost 3-0 to New Zealand and now has emphatically beaten Australia in the first test. By doing so India also became the first side to defeat Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Should Jasprit Bumrah remain India’s Test Captain ahead of Rohit Sharma? Let us know in the comments below.
