India vs Australia: Aakash Chopra hails Jasprit Bumrah for his spell in first T20I

Not many would have backed India to challenge Australia after they were restricted to a modest 126 for 7 while batting first in the first T20I on Sunday. Put in to bat first, the Men in Blue never got the impetus and struggled throughout before huffing and puffing to 126 for 7 in the stipulated 20 overs. KL Rahul, who was making his comeback in the team, was the only notable contributor, scoring a much-needed 50 runs.

India went on to lose the game by three wickets but not before giving Australia a mighty scare. In fact, at one stage it looked like the Men in Blue would win the game before the visitors pulled off a last-ball thriller. That India managed to make a game out of it was mainly because of Bumrah. The right-arm pacer, who was returning to the team, bowled a stunning spell to help India claw their way back into the game.

He finished his spell with superb figures of 3 for 16 including a scintillating 19th over that almost sealed the game for India. With Australia needing 16 off the last two overs, he conceded just two in the penultimate over in addition to dismissing Peter Handscomb and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Prior to that, he had also dismissed the dangerous Aaron Finch for a duck to give India the perfect start. His efforts, however, eventually went in vain as Umesh Yadav failed to defend 14 runs in the final over.

But despite the loss, Bumrah has been garnering praise from all over and former India opener Aakash Chopra has also lauded the pacer. Chopra took to Twitter to hail Bumrah, saying that the pacer is the Virat Kohli of Indian bowling. “Bumrah is Kohli of the Indian bowling. Or maybe, he’s even more important than his skipper. What. An. Asset,” Chopra wrote on Twitter.

Bumrah is Kohli of the Indian bowling. Or may be, he’s even more important than his skipper.
What. An. Asset. #IndvAus @StarSportsIndia

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 24, 2019

Just focussing on my strength

Speaking at the end of the game, Bumrah said that he was not thinking much before bowling the 19th over and was just backing his strength.

“Not a lot, just focussing on what my strengths are and what the wicket is because the wicket was a little difficult to bat on, it was not a wicket you could score heavily on, to play big shots on this sluggish wicket was a little difficult. So I was just figuring out what my options were and was looking to execute them,” Bumrah said.

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