Down-and-out India face rusty Aus for supremacy

As stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah leads an inexperienced pace pack, senior all-rounder R Ashwin might play as sole spinner

Dressed in his India whites, Test cap No. 290 firmly in place, Jasprit Bumrah emerged from the shadows to join Australian counterpart Pat Cummins on the impeccable Optus Stadium outfield. The occasion was the captains’ photo shoot before the start of the five-Test series, the fast bowler filling in for Rohit Sharma, who will miss the first game starting on Friday.

Jasprit Bumrah knows all about emerging from the shadows. It was Australia where he first announced himself to the world in a ODI series in January 2016. Two years on, he played his first Test in Cape Town and by the end of that series, he was well on his way to establishing himself as potentially India’s No. 1 pacer of all time.

Also Read: IND vs AUS 1st Test: Jasprit Bumrah opens up on his leadership role

Players and coaching staff in a huddle during India’s practice session at Perth’s Optus Stadium recently. Pic/Getty Images

Mentoring the pace attack

In the intervening seven years, he hasn’t disappointed, striking telling blows at crucial moments, turning the course of a contest in the space of six deliveries, assuming not just a leadership, but also the mentoring role as the boss of a young pace attack.

Bumrah will need to be at his competitive, incisive best if India are to overturn their recent abysmal run against New Zealand at home and begin this series on the right note. Without Rohit, the injured Shubman Gill and the still-unavailable Mohammed Shami, that is a tall order, but no one ever said Test cricket is child’s play.

Australia are a touch rusty when it comes to Test cricket — their last five-day game was against New Zealand in Christchurch in early March — but Cummins excepted, everyone else has played at least one first-class match for their respective states in the Sheffield Shield and are as ready as ever heading into a home summer. The prospect of winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in India-Australia clashes, is an added incentive for several who have been at the receiving end of 1-2 score lines four times in the last seven and a half years.

McSweeney set to debut

The hosts will have one debutant in opener Nathan McSweeney, who comes in for the now-retired David Warner, while India too are expected to hand out at least one cap, to Cummins’s Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate Nitish Reddy, the all-rounder who also bowls brisk fast-medium. India have an unsettled look with KL Rahul (after the first Test), Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel, who all didn’t play against New Zealand, set to return to Test action as they grapple with balance and combination issues.

Bumrah will have a relatively inexperienced pace unit for the company, which is why perhaps senior all-rounder R Ashwin might keep his place in the XI as the solitary spinner. The presence of three left-handers in the Australian top seven could nudge Ashwin ahead of Ravindra Jadeja, coming off 10 wickets in his last Test outing, against New Zealand in Mumbai a fortnight back.

Australia hold most of the aces on what is expected to be a spiced up deck at the Optus, though recent precipitation has prevented Issac McDonald from laying out a strip of entirely his choice. It will be up to India to defang them if they aspire for a hat-trick of series wins on Aussie turf.

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