Australia batter Travis Head feels Jasprit Bumrah will go down as “one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game” and said he’ll proudly tell his grandchildren about the formidable challenge of facing the Indian pace maestro. Bumrah reinforced his status as the best bowler in the world with a stunning performance in the opening Test in Perth which India won by 295 runs. “Jasprit will go down as probably one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game. I think we’re finding that at the moment — how challenging he can be, and it’s nice to play against that,” Head told reporters on Monday.
“It’s gonna be nice to go back and look at your career and go tell the grandkids that you faced him. So not a bad series of playing with him. Hopefully I’ll face a few more times, but he is as being challenging,” he added.
Bumrah, who was captaining the visiting side, led from the front with a match-haul of 8/72, including several pivotal wickets, showcasing his exceptional form. His stellar performance was a testament to his remarkable consistency this year.
Earlier this year, he was named Player-of-the-Series in the T20 World Cup, where he played a key role in India’s title-winning campaign.
Head was the sole Australian batter to get a fifty in Perth as the top order comprising the likes of Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne struggled but the explosive middle-order batter is certain his teammates won’t be approaching him for tips.
“They are not coming to me for batting tips, that’s for sure. Everyone goes about it in different ways. We’ll have a chat over the next three or four days.
“(Bumrah) is so unique, and that’s with any of the bowlers, really. Every (batter) picks up different cues and goes about it in a different way.” The Australian squad reconvened on Monday after a short break.
The two sides will now play a pink ball Test in Adelaide from Friday at the same venue where India were all out for 36 in their previous visit in 2020.
Recalling that match, Head said, “I remember that it was a quick test, so it was good. We got to enjoy all of the bits of Adelaide afterwards.
“It’ll be nice to do that again. Don’t know if we can revisit. It wouldn’t take very long to watch it. I don’t think that will happen this week.” While India played a day-night pink-ball game against the Prime Ministers XI over the weekend, Australia last played a pink ball Test in January.
“It’s been a long time since we played one (pink ball), India got another look at it last night. Everyone’s well experienced enough, especially that team as well, that in your international level.
“I think you can accustomed to things pretty quickly. I don’t think it’ll take them long to be prepared for it, and same as us.”
No divide in the team
Head asserted that there is no “divide” between Australia’s struggling batting and the bowling unit. A possible rift within the team was suggested following a comment from Josh Hazlewood during the first Test.
“We hold high expectations for both sides (batting and bowling) and it’s a very individualised sport,” Head said.
“So batters, we want to hold our own – we know how good our bowlers have been for us in the past and they’ve got us out of trouble a lot. As a batting group, we know that if we get enough runs on the board, we put ourselves in a great position.
“As a batter myself, I try to take a whole lot of pride in what I do, and knowing that if I can set it up for the big boys, that they can knock it down for us, so definitely no divide,” Head said.
Australia have dealt with adversity well
Head backed the Australians to bounce back from their horror show in Perth.
“This team has dealt with adversity well. The small amount that we have had in the last three or four years, we have played well.
“We’ve had some challenging times and a couple of challenging Tests last year. We didn’t have a very good week. That’s fine. But we have got four more opportunities to do it, we will crack on as we do, as we have done for the last few years.
“Over the last couple of years, there’s a lot of teams that lost the first Test or gone down in the series and brought it back and played really well.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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