KL Rahul Defends Jasprit Bumrah As Pacer's Struggles Continue

Team India vice-captain KL Rahul has leapt in defence of his under-performing teammate Jasprit Bumrah as his awful form in international cricket in 2020 continued with the second ODI against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.

After taking one wicket in three ODIs at home against Australia and ailing to pick up a single wicket in three ODIs in New Zealand earlier this year, Jasprit Bumrah has looked largely ineffective in the first two games of the ongoing ODI series against Australia.

Apart from his failure to be among wickets, the India pace spearhead has also struggled to maintain a good economy-rate. In the first ODI, he had conceded 73 runs while taking one wicket. In the second game on Sunday, he went for 79 runs while taking one wicket.

“New Zealand was a long long time ago. I am sure he sets the bar very high… he means a lot to this team and to this set-up and we know the value of Jasprit,” said KL Rahul.

“It is about time a champion player like that will come back and deliver and get wickets for us. You also have to understand that New Zealand and Australia, the wickets are so good to bat on. You will see top bowlers not getting wickets [once in a while]. So that is acceptable,” he added.

KL Rahul further said that the mood in the team is still positive despite two heavy defeats and the subsequent series loss. Despite the tough start to the Australia tour, the wicketkeeper-batsman confident that the team was ‘doing a lot of things right’, and were a bowling lesson or two away from turning a corner.

“The mood in the camp has been, and is, still very positive. Sometimes as teams you learn to accept that the opposition played better cricket. It is home conditions for them.

“We have played 50-over cricket after a long long time so yeah still a long way to go on the tour. But we are doing a lot of things right. Just need to learn how to bowl better on such beautiful batting surfaces. That is the learning. Not a lot we have done wrong. So we need to get better with our skills and execution and need to figure out what we can do on such wickets,” said KL Rahul.

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