Bumrah led India to one of their greatest overseas wins at Perth: Ponting

Former Australia captain turned cricket pundit, Ricky Ponting rated India’s latest win at Perth as one of their greatest victories overseas. He credited the stand-in India captain Jasprit Bumrah for the incredible turnaround in the game. 

“Bumrah led the way. The way he bowled at the start of the first innings was incredible. You know, with Shami not being there, he had to stand up and lead the way. And being the captain, he did it. He did it on the field with his leadership, and he did it with the ball in hand.,” Ponting was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz. 

"It'll go down, I'm sure, as one of India's greatest-ever Test match wins, and it probably should,” he added. 

Listing the reason why it should probably be one of the greatest and in line with Gabba of 2021 where India came from behind to win the series 2-1, Ponting said it was an incredible turnaround after getting bowled out for 150 odd in the first innings.

"With the players down that they had... Rohit (Sharma), is not there, (Shubman) Gil, is not there and (Mohammed) Shami is not there... It's an amazing win. After getting bowled out for 150, it was a bit, yeah, a shock win. And they've won by the best part of 300 runs. So it's an incredible turnaround.”

Ponting, commentating during the game, said that the Indian batters did what they had to, but the bowling stood out. 

"Virat (Kohli, who scored an unbeaten century) had to do what he did in the second innings and he set the game up along with (Yashasvi) Jaiswal. But I think their whole bowling group stood up late on Day One. The second half of the first day was probably where the game changed."

Reacting to his prediction of a 3-1 win series for the hosts in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, Ponting said he still stood by that prediction. 

"No, I have not changed my view. I'll stay with that. India won the first (Test). I said 3-1 at the start. Yes, I'll stick with it. But it's a long way back. The Aussies have a fair bit of work to do,” said the head coach of the Punjab Kings, who nearly picked a mini Australia at the auctions for the North Indian side in the IPL.

If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out on our content — big time. Download the App here