India began their journey of World Test Championship with a dominating win. They completely ran through the West Indian batting line up and a large credit goes to Jasprit Bumrah. While Bumrah once again proved his worth, skipper Virat Kohli explained why he was not used in limited-overs.
Bumrah, the speedster
At the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua at first Ajinkya Rahane scored a brilliant century and Hanuma Vihari smashed a 93 to give West Indies a huge target of 419 runs. Then Indian bowling squad wrapped up the Windies innings for just 100 runs to win the first Test by 318 runs. It was India’s fourth-highest Test victory. Jasprit Bumrah continued to amaze as he scalped five wickets and baffled the Windies batters. No wonder Kohli was eclectic after the superb victory. He singled out Rahane and KL Rahul from the batting line up while kept praising the efforts shown by the bowling unit.
Kohli talks about the performance of Bumrah and also explained the reason behind his absence from India’s ODI and T20I squads for the tour of West Indies just prior to the Test series. “Bumrah’s workload is most important which is why he didn’t play any white-ball games after the World Cup. He’ll be a key factor for us as long as the World Test Championship continues.” Virat said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Kohli on other bowlers
The way Bumrah delivers every time it is important to protect him from injuries. He has been constant on the field since the Indian Premier League. The management and selectors hence decided to send him for some rest during the limited over series in West Indies. This was probably also the reason why Kohli didn’t give stress on Bumrah later in the innings and relied on his other weapons.
He also talked about other bowlers while he sounded satisfied. He opined, ‘Shami is the same and Ishant is a banker, reliable always. Umesh is there too and Navdeep is waiting in the wings. We are settled as our bowling options, but managing workloads will be important.’
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