Indian cricket team stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah’s witty reply during the pre-match press conference left everyone in splits ahead of the first Test encounter against Australia in Perth starting Friday. Bumrah will be leading the side in absence of Rohit Sharma who chose to spend time with his family after the birth of his second child. During the press conference, a journalist asked Bumrah about how he feels about captaining India as a “medium pace all-rounder”. Bumrah was quick to come up with a witty answer as he said that he can bowl 150kmph and that is why he should at least be called “fast bowler captain”.
“How does it feel to captain India as a medium pace all-rounder?,” the reporter asked.
“Yaar, I can bowl 150kmph, at least you say, fast bowler captain,” Bumrah quickly responded.
Bumrah was not ready to divulge his playing eleven for the opening Test against Australia starting Friday but gave enough indications that the team management is heavily invested in young Nitish Kumar Reddy’s all-round abilities, which can lend perfect balance to the Indian eleven.
As a captain what has impressed Bumrah is that the youngsters in the side are neither confused about their roles nor overwhelmed by the sense of occasion of playing their first Test series Down Under.
Reddy, rookie speedster Harshit Rana, Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna and Dhruv Jurel are on their maiden Test tour to Australia.
“Reddy is quite talented and we are positive about him. You have seen in IPL also, he believes in his game,” Bumrah said at the pre-match media conference on Thursday.
Bumrah admired the fact that this generation of players are fearless and clear-headed in their approach.
“The best thing about youngsters in our team is that when you talk to them, no one looks confused, overwhelmed,” he said.
“When you have belief in your abilities, you get a lot of confidence as a leader that a youngster wants to perform the tough job.
“He wants responsibility and wants to be thrown at the deep end of the pool as they want to prove themselves. Nothing could be more heartening for a captain.” Virat Kohli’s current form might be a matter of debate but Bumrah has no doubt that India’s Numero Uno batsman looks in fine nick and it could be an ominous sign for the opposition. But he wouldn’t like to “jinx it”.
“I don’t have to say anything about Kohli the batter. I have made my (Test) debut under him. I don’t need to give him any kind of special inputs and he is the utmost professional you have in our team and he is one of the leaders,” Bumrah was loud and clear.
(With PTI inputs)
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