At the end of the day three of Perth Test, the Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah praised the Indian skipper Virat Kohli for his powerful leadership quality.
In the reply of Australia’s first innings total 326 runs in the Perth Test, India was under pressure after losing their both openers at the very early stage as the visitors were struggling on 8/2. The Indian skipper played a marvellous innings with the tremendous patience and completed his 25th Test century in a brilliant way.
The 30-year-old right-handed batsman scored 123 runs off 257 balls (13 fours and only six) in that innings which helped the visitors to manage 283 runs in their first innings.
At the end of the day’s play, Bumrah told about Kohli’s brilliant batting effort, “We were in trouble but he carried the team with that knock. He’s been doing it for a while. He’s an inspiring leader, who leads from the front. It’s a great thing for us.”
Talking more about Kohli’s leadership quality, Bumrah said, “His [Virat Kohli’s] energy is always very infectious on the team because he is always looking to push forward and he is always motivating the team. It’s always great to have leader like him.”
After completing his 25th Test century, Kohli’s celebration becomes a special talking point where he pointed that his bat talks for himself.
There it is! The King @imVkohli brings up a brilliant hundred in Perth! #India #Kohli #ViratKohli #Cricket
LIVE: https://t.co/VEXZiTCSAy pic.twitter.com/tjFNZskT1P— Telegraph Sport (@telegraph_sport) December 16, 2018
Speaking about that celebration, Bumrah said, “I really have no idea what he meant but he’s always very animated with his celebration. It’s always fun to watch it from the dressing room.”
However, Kohli’s dismissal at the crucial time of the game remained controversial. On the final delivery of Pat Cummins during the 63rd over of the innings, Kohli had a thick edge after going for a drive against the full outside off delivery. That travelled to the second slip Peter Handscomb who grabbed that ball but there was a big question – whether that ball carried to him or not. Soon after taking that ball, Handscomb pointed to the on-field umpires that it was an out.
As the on-field umpires were not sure, they asked to the third umpires but their soft signal was out. Replay showed that it was a very tight call where some positions were strongly indicating that the ball was landed just before Handscomb’s hand. But there was still a question – whether Handscomb’s fingers were underneath the ball or not? As there was no perfect footage, the third umpire Nigel Llong stayed with the “out” decision.
Talking about that decision, Bumrah claimed that they were little surprised with the on-field call but they are moving forward with the game.
Bumrah said, “We were little surprised by the on-field call but now that it’s been done, it’s done. We move forward with the game.”
Starting their second innings with the 43 runs lead, Australia was batting on 132/4 at the stumps of day 3 with the lead of 175 runs. With the ball in hand in this innings, Bumrah has a bowling figure of 13-5-25-1.
Bumrah said about their bowling efforts, “Not my luckiest day but it’s okay. When you are able to put pressure somebody else will get a wicket. So, we wanted to do that. Sometimes you don’t bowl so well but still you get wickets. We have been bowling well and keeping the pressure from both ends. That was our aim today and hopefully we will be able to that tomorrow [Monday] morning as well.”
Speaking about their fourth innings target, Bumrah feels that the Indian batting line-up is capable to chase any total.
The Indian pacer added, “In my eyes, I feel our team is capable of chasing any total but we will try to minimise as much as possible.”
