India’s Virat Kohli bats on day three of the third cricket Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane. (AP Photo)
Imagine being Jasprit Bumrah when the Indian top-order combusted spontaneously on arrival at the crease. Bumrah must have barely changed and sat in the dressing room when he must have seen his batsmen implode.
He had bowled his heart out, racked his brains and tired out his body to get six hard-earned wickets. In eight balls, three Indians fell to soft dismissals. Two of them, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill, chasing well-outside off deliveries, and the other, Yashasvi Jaiswal, flicking a ball on the legs to waiting palms. The Australian bowlers didn’t have to tire their bodies or minds, just hurled outside off and ran on from their follow-through to celebrate with their mates. Chasing 445, India were 22 for 3 at one stage before rain and later bad light terminated play at 51 for 4.
Someone should just replay the tape of Jasprit Bumrah’s talk at the media interaction to the batsmen. Not that he said anything about them, or even played the blame game about the other bowlers, but he listed out the challenges he faced in this Test. And how he had to persevere and work out solutions for each of them.
The batsmen would undoubtedly turn sheepish when they realised how hard he had to sweat, and how easily they gifted their wickets to the Australians. He talked about how at the Gabba, the wicket is at a level slightly above the run-up and how the Indians, not used to that back home, had to adjust. He didn’t blame the other bowlers, but talked about this is a “journey” for them to go through and learn about their craft. That in other words meant he had to do it all on his own almost. He talked about the challenges that the Kookaburra ball offers after 30 overs when it gets soft. In a phase of 8 balls, Indians had shot themselves in the foot.
The way the top three fell, and how quickly at that, also had an additional side effect. Just like it did at Adelaide’s second innings, it forced Rishabh Pant to play a game that he isn’t used to. Trying to defend, sweating to survive, attempting to eat up a few overs – but in doing that he too fell, edging. Just like he did in that Adelaide innings; when he sort of pre-determines on blocking everything, he can offer a tame poke to anglers outside off.
Australian players celebrate the wicket of India’s Shubman Gill on day three of the third cricket Test between India and Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane. (AP Photo)
In this series, he has now fallen to Pat Cummins for the third time in five innings. As a No. 5, Pant of course would want to develop this side of the game too, but as yet, his presence in that middle order is to counterattack to flip the pressure on the opponents. Not slogging, but as Travis Head has shown repeatedly, with controlled aggression. But when he is forced into one mode of blocking, he isn’t being himself. And that’s not his mistake but that of the men before him. When he fell in the 14th over, India were 44 for 4 and that brought in the captain Rohit Sharma.
Eight rain breaks
With help from the elements – rain first and bad light when it finally resumed at 4:55 pm local time, Rohit and KL Rahul saw through the day without further damage. There were eight rain breaks in all, six of them during India’s batting innings. At some point during the final break of play, even as Australians were out there warming up, Rohit came and sat in the dugout open seats near the boundary. Helmeted, padded, he kept staring ahead at a distance at nothing in particular. The rains might still save his team here, but considering the alarming rate at which they combusted, now that can’t be said for sure too.
Just before he went to bat, Jaiswal had been taking throw-downs, and fiercely driving balls. One of them was a full-pitched one on his legs that he flicked rather hard and it hit the ankle of a photographer capturing Australia’s team huddle. Jaiswal apologised repeatedly and received a similar ball from Starc on the second delivery he faced. He had already gone for a hard drive the first ball and edged it through the slip cordon. This second ball, he flicked aerially straight to short midwicket. Starc has already got him once with that line of attack- a lovely curler on that line that trapped him first ball at Adelaide. Now, a full-pitched without that kind of venom has taken him out and Starc slipped out his tongue like a schoolboy as he ran past the man who had told him at Perth that he wasn’t fast enough these days.
Then Gill went down without a shot fired at him. A full ball outside off and he went chasing, eying the big gap between the second gully and mid-off. And Mitch Marsh flew to his left at that second gully position to take a stunner.
At one point when Kohli was batting, Rahul had let an outside-off ball go through to the ‘keeper and Kohli put a thumbs up from the other end. But he didn’t quite see the wisdom of that abstinence himself as he kept chasing. And unsurprisingly edged a Josh Hazlewood delivery to Alex Carey. India were 22 for 3 in 7.2 overs before rains came lashing down to offer respite.
Rohit has the chance now to show that he still can lead the team with his batting if the elements allow him enough time on Tuesday. Will he or would he also go down tamely, that’s the piece of action to watch out for.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
