The much awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 is set to begin November 22, with the first match being held in Perth. The Indian team has already reached Australia and is currently having intense practice sessions at the WACA stadium.
As the date for the series comes close, individual rivalries between players are beginning to heat up and rise as India and Australia has had a long record of a healthy competition.
One such competition includes the one between Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah and Australian opener Usman Khawaja. Khawaja has accepted that the challenge that Bumrah has in his unique bowling action, which makes it difficult to predict his deliveries.
“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,” Khawaja told Fox Cricket.
“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,” he added.
“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,” he finished.
Furthermore, Khawaja gave out an unintentional hint towards the assessment of Australia towards the Indian bowling attack. While he talked about Bumrah’s bowling being a threat, Khawaja suggested that the Indian team has more diversity in the 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,” he concluded.
