Kolkata : Former New Zealand pacer and currently analyst and commentator Simon Doull has appreciated Australia’s scheduling of Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 , with an estimated effort to wear India’s prime pacer Jasprit Bumrah down.
India will play 5 matches Test series in Australia. The venues are warm Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney. Although India defeated Australia in their home soil on last 2 occasions, Rohit Sharma and his army will have level of confidence brought down after recent 3-0 whitewash on Home soil by New Zealand.
Simon Doull feels that the scheduling of Border Gavaskar Trophy’s 5 matches with it’s venues is smart and tactical move by the Aussies to wear down India’s main bowler Bumrah.
Doull explained how by picking Perth, with warm weather and Brisbane , a delight for pacers as the venues for the first and third Test, with a pink-ball match in Adelaide sandwiched, where Bumrah will have to over bowl yet again, the Australians are hoping Bumrah’s workload increases by bowling “a lot of overs“.
“They (Australia) have gone with the three hardest and fastest surfaces, plus the pink-ball Test. They are trying to cook Bumrah. They will cook him in the heat of Perth, where he will have to bowl a lot of overs. Then he is going to have to go and bowl a lot of overs in that second pink-ball Test match in Adelaide. And then you’ve got to go to Brisbane where generally, first up, the seamers are quite good as well,” Doull explained.
As per Doull, it’s rare to start a series from Perth, it’s a smart move of the Aussies, to overwork Bumrah so that India make a forced change in last 2-3 Tests and Aussie Batters can play comparatively comfortably.
“So they’re going to cook Bumrah in the first 2-3 Test matches, make sure he bowls a lot of overs, and then they (India) are going to have to make a change. They’re going to have to go to someone else. So I think the scheduling from Australia’s point of view has been quite smart because very rarely do they start a series in Perth”, Doull added.
The other specialist pacers in India’s squad for Australia are Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, uncapped Harshit Rana & all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who bowls seam-up, yet to make Test debut.
