Adelaide: Former Australia captain noted India’s mistake in not deploying Jasprit Bumrah from the Bradman Stand end during day one of the second Test at Adelaide Oval. He suggested it would be interesting to see if India switched Bumrah’s bowling end for day two’s play.
Bumrah dismissed Usman Khawaja to end up with figures of 1-13 in 11 overs, but he didn’t get required support from other Indian seamers, as they didn’t attack the stumps much and bowled a bit short to allow Australia race to 86/1 in 33 overs at stumps on day one.
“I noticed yesterday when the game started, it was talked about that they had actually cut a little bit more grass off this wicket. What they did, they’ve actually scarified the surface as well. When you take a close look at the wicket, you can see some green strips that are going straight down the pitch.”
“A lot of these balls are landing right on those green lines and they are actually seaming a lot. A lot of these deliveries pitching right on the line, this one in particular darts back and luckily for Nathan McSweeney, it seamed in too much and was shown to be missing leg stump. It’s actually more prominent from this (The Bradman stand) end.”
“If you go out and look at the wicket, and that’s where I think India made a bit of an error last night, not using Bumrah from this end. There’s a lot more lines, a lot closer together on and around the off stump to a right-handed batter. Interesting to see if India have noticed that overnight.”
“Interesting to see if they change ends with Bumrah this morning. What we saw with Boland and Cummins in particular bowling from this end, the Bradman stand end, that was when the ball seemed to seam a lot more. That’s I think a big challenge for the Aussie batters this afternoon and something India will look at,” said Ponting to broadcasters Channel Seven ahead of day two’s play.
Ponting also felt India captain Rohit Sharma should have opened the batting in Adelaide, instead of dropping himself down to number six in the Indian batting line-up. On day one, Rohit made just three off 23 balls after coming out to bat at number six, before being trapped lbw by Scott Boland.
“I felt he should have come back into the side and opened the batting because KL Rahul has been a fringe player around this team for a number of years. Yes he got his chance and yes he played well in Perth, but what that says to me now is that Rohit Sharma is going to spend the rest of his career down the order, because KL Rahul has played well, Shubman Gill looked good in the first innings here.”
“So the only spot for Rohit Sharma in the side now is going to be at number 6 and that might be where he stays for the rest of his career, who knows. But I mean he’s a class player to come back in, although his record is not that good against Australia. I think he’s only made one Test match hundred against Australia – the captain coming back in and batting in the middle was a bit of an eye-opener, but that’s for decisions that the captain has to make.”
(IANS)
