Usman Khawaja reveals plans to tackle Jasprit Bumrah threat in Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Usman Khawaja reveals plans to tackle Jasprit Bumrah threat in Border-Gavaskar Trophy

New Delhi: The highly-awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) is all set to commence on November 22 with the first Test which is scheduled at the Optus Stadium in Perth. Team India has already arrived in Australia and is currently holding regular practice sessions at the WACA Ground. The series is known for its enriching history and it’s made even more interesting with some individual rivalries which are already heating up as the series approaches.

Usman Khawaja, one of the Australian openers for the series, will have a bigger task of taking on Jasprit Bumrah with the fresh ball whenever the Aussies come to bat. This makes it a rivalry between the pacer and batter as Khawaja has acknowledged the threat posed by Bumrah’s stand-out bowling action which makes it difficult to predict his deliveries. Khawaja has notably been unbeaten against Bumrah in seven Test innings, although mustering a modest 43 runs off 155 balls.

“I mean, when you first face him, it’s just his action. It’s a different, bizarre kind of action as his release point is very different than other bowlers. It’s just a bit further up. So a lot of guys release the ball from near the popping crease. (Against Bumrah) it feels like he gets a bit further out just with his front braced leg and pushes the ball out,” Khawaja told Fox Cricket.

“So it feels like it comes out and then gets there a lot quicker than you expect it. It’s just once you get used to the action, it’s fine. I played against him a lot. Not to say that he can’t give me out first ball. I mean anyone can. But it’s one of those things where once the first time you face him, it’s very awkward and then when you get a little bit of rhythm it gets better. But he’s still a class bowler,” Khawaja added.

Other ‘good’ bowlers in India

India have defeated Australia in the last two home series and are looking forward to extend their dominance on the Aussie soil like the 2020-21 tour. Khawaja unintentionally revealed how the Australian team had assessed the Indian bowling attack. Khawaja said, that apart from Bumrah, India possess a more diverse and potent bowling lineup.

“Everyone talks about Jasprit, but they actually have a lot of other good bowlers. I think [Mohammed] Siraj is a very good bowler. He’s a very good bowler to both right-handers and left-handers. When [Mohammed] Shami was fit, when he was playing those series, he was a very good bowler. He was very underrated. No one really talked about him. And then they got good spinners lining up, too, which really complements their fast bowlers,” Khawaja concluded.

India’s squad for BGT:

Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed

Australia’s squad for 1st BGT Test:

Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.

 Usman Khawaja discussed facing Jasprit Bumrah in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, first dissecting his unique action and then talking about tackling the threat imposed by the pacer.  Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today