Michael Vaughan believes India could have beaten Australia in the fifth Test at the SCG and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy if Jasprit Bumrah had bowled in the final innings.
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India lost Mohammad Shami before the tour and Bumrah had do the lion’s share of the pace bowling but finished with an astonishing 32 wickets to be named player of the series.
But his injury day two of the final Test ruled him out of the rest of the match and spared Australia having to face him as they hunted 162 for victory on day three.
Vaughan praised Australia for winning the series, given Bumrah’s dominance, but said the tourists lack of depth in their pace attack hurt them.
“They faced without question the best bowler in the world as we speak and many are saying that Jasprit Bumrah is the greatest ever bowler,” Vaughan said.
“If you are scoring a few runs against Bumrah you are doing a lot right.”
Vaughan said India’s pace depth was exposed against Australia but believes they still could have won the last Test and drawn the series if Bumrah didn’t get injured.
“When you look at the back-up seamers for India, Bumrah was outstanding with his 32 wickets,” Vaughan said.
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“Harshit Rana four at 50, Prasidh Krishna did OK this week with six wickets at 17.8. Akash Deep five at 50 and Nitish Reddy five at 38.
“They have really struggled to back up that man Bumrah. Obviously he missing the second innings here on a pitch that offered the seamers plenty it could have been a different story if Bumrah had been fit.”
Adam Gilchrist was surprised Bumrah didn’t break down sooner given his workload during the series.
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“We came into this series saying is there enough support around Jasprit Bumrah and in the end the evidence was no it wasn’t quite,” Gilchrist said on Fox Cricket.
“Siraj fought earnestly, but Bumrah I was very surprised actually that he got to this point in the series before he broke down such was the workload that he had to carry.
“32 wickets and it seems a long time ago that opening spell when he took 3-9 in Perth in the afternoon of day one and we thought, hang on this series could really be different to what we expected and this series could go India’s way.”
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Ravi Shastri believes India need to show more support for Bumrah and unearth some new pace bowling options.
“This is what India have to work on now,” Shastri said.
“They have a good group and a good bunch of bowlers, but once Shami got injured, Jasprit having to work really hard and he is not fully fit.
“Let’s hope it is not a serious injury, but they have got to start looking at some bench strength and then grooming them.
“Giving them time and then backing them to get them into the group.”
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Mark Waugh believes Bumrah kept the series close and he could have led the tourists to victory on day three at the SCG if he was fit.
“Everyone thought Jasprit Bumrah would be a massive threat, but I don’t think anyone thought he could bowl to the level he has bowled this series,” Waugh said.
“This was as good a fast bowling as I have ever seen since I have been around cricket fields.
“He was just a different level to most of the guys probably apart from Scott Boland in the last couple of Tests.
“Bumrah’s’s bowling almost single-handedly could have won the series for India. It definitely kept them in the series.
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“Without him I don’t think they would have been competitive.
“I think if Bumrah was fit today, India were a really big chance of defending that total because there was still a lot in the wicket and we saw India just didn’t have the quality to take advantage of that.
“But I don’t think we will see better fast bowling from an overseas player as far as I am alive. That was a magnificent performance throughout the whole series.”
“You could see what Pat Cummins said, 30 runs today where if India had got 30 that without Bumrah he still thought it might have been tight,” Shastri added.
“So with Bumrah he would have been a handful.”
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