The veteran Indian spinner, R Ashwin came in support of the team’s decision to send Jasprit Bumrah as the nightwatchman towards the close of play on Day 2 of the ongoing pink-ball Test, saying the move was pretty on the expected lines. Bumrah helped India navigate a tricky period of play under the lights on Friday without suffering much damage after he was sent in as a nightwatchman.
Bumrah came out to bat at No. 3 after India lost the opener, Prithvi Shaw, as early as the 2nd over of their 2nd innings and he confidentially negotiated the bowling on Pat Cummins with the new-pink ball under the lights at the Adelaide Oval.
Talking about Bumrah’s batting, Ashwin said, “Firstly, Jasprit is an extremely competitive cricketer. He likes to take a battle on and ever since he has come into Test cricket, his bowling is there to see, it’s speaking for itself. But he has put the earnest effort in terms of how much he bats, how much he has improved his batting.”
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He further added, “There have been times when he has walked in, the dressing room has changed into whites, changed boots and all that. But now from being a No. 11, he has made a fifty, he looks at home when he is defending also. It was a no-brainer as far as the team was concerned, even in the little time he batted, he infused a lot of confidence.”
As R Ashwin pointed out, Jasprit Bumrah had headed into the series-opening Day-night Test after scoring his maiden first-class fifty he hit during the 3-day pink-ball warm-up game against Australia A in Sydney last week.
Bumrah was confident even in the first innings on Friday when the other tail-enders threw their wickets away. Bumrah hit a flowing cover driver and picked up a boundary against Mitchell Starc.
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Bumrah and Agarwal will resume India’s innings on Saturday with the overnight score of 9/1. After having bowled Australia out for 191, India has a healthy 62-run lead but they eventually got bundled out for a meager score of 36.
