No Bumrah, no joy: BGT changes hands

With the pacer unable to bowl due to back spasms, Australia ease to six-wicket win to clinch series 3-1, seal WTC final spot

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SYDNEY: The end was rather tame and entirely at odds with the see-saw nature of the series.

For once, there were no twists, no surprises. And for once, there was no Jasprit Bumrah to provide them either.

The moment the Indian team went into the huddle without Bumrah on Day 3 of the Sydney Test on Sunday, the writing was on the wall. All series, the support cast had not been good enough, and now, with just 162 runs to defend, they were being asked to do the impossible. It wasn't fair on them. It wasn't fair on Bumrah either. The game isn't about the individuals, but then, what is it without the individuals? The pacer had been in divine form all series, but now, in its final leg, he had broken down. If this didn't break your heart, then you are tough, unimaginably so. He came out to bat and that gave all those watching some hope, until it was extinguished a little later.

Australia won the third shortest Test at Sydney (in terms of balls bowled, 1141) by six wickets to take the series 3-1, and finally get their hands on the Border Gavaskar Trophy after a decade. But for most people, the abiding memory from the series will be Bumrah. The stuttering run-up, the competitiveness, the anger, the stare, the smarts and the almost inhuman ability to not waste a single delivery.