Indian bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been selected as the player of the series for his stellar performance in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Bumrah picked up 32 wickets in the series at an incredible average of 13.06 and was easily the highest wicket-taker on either side.
While most of the Indian players struggled, Bumrah shone with his unerring consistency and proved to be a tough nut to crack for the Aussies. He picked up wickets whenever his team needed and carried the burden of an inexperienced bowling attack on his shoulders.
However, Jasprit Bumrah was unlucky not to bowl in the second innings for Australia in the Sydney Test as he suffered back spasms on the second day of the match. His absence clearly cost India as other bowlers were given too much to do despite the pitch offering ample help to the seamers.
Watch: Australian dressing room erupts in wild celebration after BGT triumph, Steve Smith goes berserk
Jasprit Bumrah breaks his silence on his injury
After the match ended, Jasprit Bumrah opened up about his injury which came at the wrong time and cost India a chance to win the match. Bumrah admitted that it was frustrating to miss the best wicket of the entire series.
“A bit frustrating, but sometimes you have to respect your body, you can’t fight your body. Disappointing, I probably missed the spiciest wicket of the series. I felt a little discomfort during my second spell in the first innings,” Bumrah said at the post-match presentation.
Without Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian bowlers had a big task on the final day. The 31-year-old revealed talking to the other bowlers in the team and believing in herself.
“The talk was about faith, the other bowlers stepped up in the first innings. With the short bowler, the others had to take responsibility. The talk this morning was about the same thing, about belief and showing character,” the fast bowler added.
Indian bowlers gave their all but had too much work to do without Bumrah. While Akash Deep picked up three wickets early on to bring India into the game, Mohammed Siraj lacked penetration and was inconsistent with his length.
Jasprit Bumrah talks about young Indian players
Jasprit Bumrah went on to mention a tough series between two great Test teams. He hopes that youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep and others can learn from their mistakes and come out as better players next time.
“They (the youngsters) have gained a lot of experience, they will go from strength to strength. We have shown that we have a lot of talent in our group. A lot of youngsters are interested, they are disappointed that we didn’t win, but they will learn from this experience,” remarked Bumrah .
“It was a great series, congratulations to Australia, they fought really well,” he congratulated Australia on a magnificent performance.
Yashasvi Jaiswal emerged as India’s top run-scorer in the series and second highest run-scorer in the series overall. Jaiswal scored 391 runs at an average of 43.44 with 1 hundred and 2 fifties.
Australia qualified for the WTC finals
With this win, Australia reclaimed the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time in a decade. India had won the Test series in their previous two tours of Australia but failed to complete a hat-trick of victories this time.
It was a hard-fought series where India had their moments but just couldn’t capitalize on them. On the other hand, Australia played as the defending WTC champions and had an answer to every question asked.
With this win, Australia have now officially qualified for the World Test Championship finals where they will face South Africa in June 2025 at Lord’s in London. This will be Australia’s second straight WTC final after winning the title last time.
