‘Bumrah exposed’: Fans worry after pacer goes wicket-less
After performing brilliantly for India in last year’s World Cup, where he snapped up 18 victims, Jasprit Bumrah was sidelined with a stress fracture in his back after India’s tour of West Indies in August 2019. This injury ruled him out of the remainder of matches last year.
In January 2020 he made his comeback to cricket against Sri Lanka after a long absence of four months which shed lights on his inability to pick scalps and forced India to look at other bowlers for wickets. So far, in 2020, he has managed to take just 9 wickets. This is very poor when compared to his stats before he was injured.
In the ongoing Test match against New Zealand, Bumrah, failed to find his length consistently. Either he bowled too full and drivable length deliveries or too short that even Rishabh Pant failed to gather with the ball going a couple feet over his head.
However, Ishant Sharma’s lion-hearted bowling effort met its match in Kane Williamson’s elegance as New Zealand ended an attritional second day of the opening Test against India with a slight upper-hand.
After another lower-order collapse that saw India get bundled out for 165, Ishant, coming straight back from an ankle injury, took three for 31 in 15 overs despite Williamson’s effortless 89 in New Zealand’s day-end score of 216 for 5 wickets and are now leading by 51 runs.
