Bowlers shine without Bumrah's presence as contest gets spicier

IT was around 1.20 PM on Saturday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Jasprit Bumrah, India's captain for the match, left the fielding after bowling his tenth over of the innings. At that point, Australia were 111/5 with Alex Carey and Beau Webster in the middle.

- GOMESH S

IT was around 1.20 PM on Saturday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Jasprit Bumrah, India's captain for the match, left the fielding after bowling his tenth over of the innings. At that point, Australia were 111/5 with Alex Carey and Beau Webster in the middle. India, for the first session and even after, kept asking questions consistently, on point about their plans for Travis Head or Steve Smith with every single bowler chipping in. Such were the conditions on offer that they kept hitting the right areas and let the ball do the rest.

However, when Bumrah walked off the field, it got alarm bells ringing. Even more so when about 40 minutes later, he left the dressing room and the stadium in a car for scans before coming back two and a half hours later. Although Prasidh Krishna would later confirm that Bumrah has back spasms and is being monitored by the medical team, at that time no one knew what was happening.