Rahul Tiwari
khelja|25-11-2024
Team India's star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has played many great matches for Team India in his illustrious career. Such matches which he will remember forever, where he single-handedly changed the course of the match. Nevertheless, the first match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Perth will probably be the most special for him or it will be his first choice for many years to come. Bumrah also has a reason - under his captaincy, Team India proved every apprehension and doubt wrong. He will also be remembered because he did something which even captains like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni could not do.
Even 4 days of play could not be completed at the Optus Stadium in Perth, when India once again defeated Australia on its own soil. The kind of comeback that Team India made after being all out for just 150 runs in the first innings on the first day of the match, got its result on Monday 25th November, when the Indian team got Australia out for just 238 runs after giving a target of 534 runs. Got defeated and won the match by a huge margin of 295 runs.
With this victory, Jasprit Bumrah did something amazing which has rarely been seen before in Indian cricket. Bumrah became one of those Indian captains who won the first Test match under their captaincy in Australia. Ajinkya Rahane had also done this feat on the last tour. Coincidentally, Bumrah and Rahane created history by taking charge in the absence of the regular captains. At the same time, even the greats like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Anil Kumble, who are among the greatest captains of India, could not achieve this feat.
It is one thing to register a victory under captaincy but it is another thing to be the hero of that victory. Bumrah proved to be the best in both the cases. Not only was his captaincy excellent, but he himself played the biggest role in turning this match in favor of Team India. After being bundled out for 150 runs in the first innings, Bumrah was the biggest reason for Australia being bowled out for just 104 runs. Bumrah took 5 wickets by dismissing batsmen like Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja. Then in the second innings too, he destroyed Australia's top order and took 8 wickets in the entire match and also became the player of the match.