Speedster Jasprit Bumrah turned up with the bat, scoring his maiden first-class half-century before he led the bowling attack and bagged two wickets to help India move into driver’s seat on the first day of their day-night warm-up game against Australia A here on Friday.
Twenty wickets fell on a low-scoring day at the Sydney Cricket Ground, with Australia A ending 86 runs behind when stumps were drawn at the end of day’s play. The hosts were 108 all out in response to India’s 194 in first innings.
Bumrah scored an unbeaten 55 with six fours and two sixes as he shared a 71-run partnership for the 10th wicket with Mohammed Siraj to take India to 194 after they had been reduced to 123 for nine in the 36th over. Both Bumrah and Siraj stayed together for over 13 overs as the Indian innings folded in the 49th over.
All-rounder Cameron Green was hit on the head by a shot from Bumrah and did not take further part in the day’s proceedings, adding to the hosts’ injury worries ahead of the series.
In response, the Australia A openers too found the going tough against the pink ball.
Joe Burns, who has been favoured by Australia coach Justin Langer and injured regular opener David Warner to open the innings in the first Test, continued his poor run of form by succumbing to a second successive duck against the touring Indians. He had managed scores of four and zero in the first warm-up game last week.
Burns has not even crossed 30 in his last nine innings and has just a century and a fifty in 14 first-class innings, including Sheffield Shield matches, this season.
Captain Alex Carey, a limited-overs specialist, was the top-scorer with 32 while Burns’s opening partner Marcus Harris scored 26.
For India, Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Shami took three wickets each, with the former conceding 19 runs and the latter 29. Bumrah took two for 33. Siraj took one for 26.
The Australia A batsmen took a few blows as the Indian bowlers looked charged up. Earlier in the day, it was a Bumrah show as the Indian batting, without Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and KL Rahul who were all resting, collapsed after a good start.
Although Mayank Agarwal, who did well on the last tour against the new ball, could make just two, youngsters Prithvi Shaw (40 off 29 balls) and Shubman Gill (43 off 58) played aggressively to add 63 for the second wicket in just 6.3 overs.
However, the Australia A bowling, led by Sean Abbott ran through the Indian middle and lower order. Abbott, who is part of the Test squad, took 3 for 46 and fellow right-arm pacer Jack Wildermuth took three for 13 as the Ajinkya Rahane-led India collapsed to 123 for nine. Green took one for 20 before he was hit on his head by a Bumrah shot and had to be substituted with Patrick Rowe.
Bumrah and Siraj then took India to their eventual total to bring some respect to the innings.
Brief scores: India A 194 all out (J Bumrah 55 not out, S Gill 43, P Shaw 40, S Abbott 3/46, J Wildermuth 3/13) vs Australia A 108 all out (A Carey 32, N Saini 3/19, M Shami 3/29)
