Nathan McSweeney, Australia’s opener, revealed that he is enjoying working against the fast-bowling spearhead of India, Jasprit Bumrah, in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, and he is hoping he gets to play the third at Brisbane. Bumrah trapped McSweeney lbw for 10 and 0 in Perth, in what was the opener’s debut Test. But, McSweeney responded back by making 39 in Australia’s first innings in Adelaide under lights before being dismissed by Bumrah on day two’s first session.
However, that set up a 67-run partnership for the second wicket with Marnus Labuschagne, which by then would help Australia achieve a series-tying ten-wicket victory at the Adelaide Oval, where Bumrah also suffered an injury scare after complaining of pain in his left adductor muscle.
“If you want to win you want to do it with the best guys. Hopefully he is charging in and hopefully we can play really well. Facing him for the first time, he is a unique bowler and obviously world class. He is a little bit different to most bowlers I have faced so it is about adapting to his angle and where he delivers on the crease.”
“I got two pretty good balls from him (in Perth) so you have to take that on the chin and trust what you’ve been doing is good enough. He got me again in Adelaide. I’m really enjoying the experience of trying to work out a game plan on the fly against a world-class bowler.”
“I hope to get better the more I face him and hopefully throw a few more punches here at the Gabba. To get a bowler like Jasprit early on in my career, it is not going to get much tougher than that. It is awesome fun. It is challenging no doubt but it is nice to get a little confidence from Adelaide and hopefully continue through the series,” added McSweeny to reporters on Wednesday.
The third Test is set to commence at the Gabba between Australia and India starting December 14 will also see McSweeney, 25, take the field in Queensland where this batsman with a right-handed batting style commenced his career and later moved to South Australia. He said batting on a Gabba pitch is beneficial to show different performance with the range of strokes because an authentic bounce is well known here.
“I know I can withstand a bit of pressure and hopefully I can get a big score here in Brisbane. You never really know if you are up to it until you spend some time in the middle and get a bit of confidence,” he concluded.
