Picture : Twitter / cricketworldcup
As Bangladesh reeled in India’s total at Edgbaston, Ramakrishnan Sridhar admits the nerves were jangling – before Jasprit Bumrah got hold of the ball.
Having earlier had a minor injury scare while fielding in the deep, the seamer – who sits atop the ICC’s ODI rankings – came back at the death to stall Bangladesh’s charge with three wickets to guide India home by 28 runs in a result which secured their place in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 semi-finals.
India set their Asian rivals 315 to win and for much of their innings it looked like they would fall short before Sabbir Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin blasted 66 off nine overs to set up a tantalising finish.
But when Bumrah came back, it was a different story, as the 25-year-old clean bowled Sabbir, Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman to take his tournament wicket tally to 14 with four for 55.
“Bumrah is a banker bowler so when he bowls, the dressing room is always very calm,” fielding coach Sridhar said.
“Because we know he executes and the batsmen will have to do something very special to get runs against him. We are very calm and we know he is going to deliver.
“When he fell [while fielding earlier in the innings] we kept our fingers crossed but it was not his knee or his shoulder so it was not serious.
“He came up towards the physio and then the physio came to us and said he was alright so we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. He came back, the champion that he is.”
India look set to return to Edgbaston in the semi-finals but first they face Sri Lanka in their final group game at Headingley this weekend.
Bumrah, playing in his first World Cup, is desperate to remain in the team and not be rested but, having just played two games in three days and with India boasting such strength in depth, Sridhar admits the two-time winners may well rotate.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav missed out against Bangladesh, while Ravi Jadeja is yet to feature in a starting XI in the competition.
“We will take a call after a couple of days. We have a travel day on Wednesday and then we will see how his body goes,” added Sridhar.
“It is always hard to play two games in three days, especially against two very good teams. We will take a look and then see how it goes.
“A break at this stage is a very good thing in my opinion because the players are able to take their time.
“We get time to reflect. At this stage, we have played eight games and won six while one has been a washout, so I think breaks are good at this stage.”
Courtesy : ICC
