Not carrying any baggage from NZ Test loss for Border-Gavaskar opener: Captain Bumrah
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Captain Jasprit Bumrah has said his Indian side were not carrying any baggage from their difficult home series loss to New Zealand going into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting Friday in Perth. “..We had a tough series last time but we are not carrying any baggage. We need to absorb the learnings (from NZ series) and move on,” Bumrah said.
The pacer, who is the stand-in skipper with Rohit Sharma opting to not feature in the first Test match, is confident India can get positive results Down Under “The conditions in India were different and conditions here are different, and we have had very different results over here,” he said.
Bumrah captained India in Tests only once before, which was again in the absence of Rohit in 2022. It was a harsh learning experience for the 30-year-old as India lost to England by 7 wickets at Edgbaston despite setting a target of 378.
But he is confident of doing justice to his role as skipper without compromising his duties as India's bowling spearhead. “I don't look at captaincy as a post, but I have always loved responsibility," Bumrah said at a press conference. “I wanted to do the tough job since I was a child. You want to do things and get thrown in tough scenarios, this adds a new challenge for me.”
He doesn't want to copy the stylebook of Rohit or Virat Kohli, who was his first captain. “You have to find your own way as you can't blindly copy anyone. Virat and Rohit have been very successful and have gotten results but my way is that I have always never followed a copybook plan. And even with my bowling you can see, I go with my instincts and that's how I have always played my cricket. I have a lot of faith in my guts and instincts,” Bumrah said. The India skipper also lauded his counterpart, pacer Pat Cummins for a "phenomenal job" with the Australian team.
“It feels good and there is no greater honour than leading your country. I have always wanted to play this format, and very few players have played this format, and captains are even less, so I am very privileged and happy to be in this position.”
Not worried about Kohli's form
Kohli's poor form in Test cricket this year, averaging under 23, is a concern for Team India going into the five-match series against Australia. But captain Bumrah is least worried about India's ace batter.
“I don't have to say anything about Kohli the batter. I have made my (Test) debut under him. I don't need to give him any kind of special inputs and he is the utmost professional in our team and he is one of the leaders,” Bumrah said.
But India skipper had some words of advice for the youngsters in the side, the likes of Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna and Dhruv Jurel. “On a given day, anyone can make a difference and doesn't matter who you are, because you gain experience by playing, nobody is born with experience and if that self-belief is there that's what matters.”
“Our players know how to handle good and bad days. Like good days, you need to learn to cope up with bad days too if you need to play international cricket,” he said.