Pink Ball Test: Bumrah’s performance was magnificent, without a doubt, says Rohit Sharma

Bengaluru, March 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) India captain Rohit Sharma heaped praise on pacer Jasprit Bumrah, saying that his performance in the second Test against Sri Lanka was 'magnificent'. In India's 238-run win over Sri Lanka in the pink-ball Test at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bumrah had an overall match haul of 8/47, including a maiden five-wicket haul at home in the first innings, excelling on a pitch where spinners were earmarked to do well.

"Bumrah's performance was magnificent, without a doubt. To come out and bowl like that in these conditions shows how many skills and abilities he has. Someone like Bumrah is never out of the game. Whatever the conditions are, he is always in the game. It gives the captain a lot of benefit in rotating the bowlers and get the best out of each bowler when you have a quality player like Bumrah in the team,"" said Sharma in the post-match virtual press conference.

Sharma explained how Bumrah can perform well in different conditions irrespective of home and away venues.

"He understands the conditions really well, that is his plus point. To bowl on certain pitches, you need certain skill sets and he seems to be bringing the skillsets into the conditions and in the game, depending on what sort of offer he has from the pitch."

"Mohali, we saw a different sort of pitch but he was still effective there and got few wickets as well. This (Bengaluru) was a completely different pitch. It was assisting spinners a lot, turning and bouncing, everything was happening for spinners. But Bumrah, with the kind of skills he has, coming and hitting the stumps all the time. If there is any lateral movement, he is always in play. I thought he showed that pretty well."

Sharma reminded of Mohammed Shami, who alongside Bumrah brought critical breakthroughs for India in the first innings.

"Not to forget Shami also, in the first innings, he got a couple of wickets and crucial breakthroughs under the lights was brilliant. Both of these guys have been brilliant for India. Whatever conditions they play, they are always in the game because they got high skillsets. They can reverse the ball, bounce the batsmen out and have got so many variations as well. To have someone like them in the team is always a good thing."

Asked about the frequency of seeing Bumrah play in Test matches at home, Sharma assured that the pacer will be seen in more matches in Indian conditions.

"Bumrah has not played a lot of cricket in India in terms of red-ball cricket. With two against England and two here, so he's played four Test matches here (in India) and it's not a lot. But keeping everything in mind, the workload of the bowlers, we have to rotate these guys continuously playing Test cricket."

"So, we need to look after them and hence, he's missed a lot of games. When you speak to someone like him, he's quite keen to make an impact in Test cricket. He wants to play a lot of Test cricket. Moving forward in coming months and years, you will see a lot of Bumrah playing Test matches in India and abroad as well."

Sharma signed off by saying that the manner of workload management of match-defining players like Bumrah will be a challenge for himself and the team management.

"But we need to look after these guys and make sure they are fresh so that they can be fresh and perform the way these guys have done here. But that's a challenge for us and how to do that is something we need to look at."

"We need to look at those kinds of things because, at the end of the day, you need these guys to be fresh and ready to go. Whatever it takes for us to do that, we will try and take those necessary steps."

Source: IANS