BGT: Photo finish beckons as India take lead but sweat on Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for remainder of Sydney Test | Cricket News

Just one more day to go, possibly. One more spine-tingler, definitely.Who else but the audacious Rishabh Pant to try dragging Indians there with hope? Who else but Captain Fantastic Pat Cummins to get him, and drag Australia there with hope? Who else but the passionate Virat Kohli buzzing all day to guide India sans Jasprit Bumrah? Who else but the silent assassin Scott Boland to hurt India most? Who else but the talismanic Bumrah, whose presence or absence could well decide the denouement of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy? And who else but Travis Head possibly to shine on Sunday as he has the knack of knocking down India in vital times?
All the usual star suspects had a hand in yet another dramatic day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as Australia got to four short of India’s 185, aided domestic cricket performer Beau Webster. India suffered a few early blows before Pant exploded spectacularly but the visitors were down to 141 for 6 at stumps, leading 145.
Kohli led admirably as Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Nitish Reddy stepped up in the absence of Bumrah, who hobbled off due to an injury — back spasm is the official word. And though it did look more serious than a mere spasm, hope floats. Even when Bumrah was on the field, it was Kohli who moved the chess pieces on the field, and when he left, Kohli conducted his orchestra adroitly.
But he yet again failed with the bat, pushing at a back-of-length kicker outside off from Boland, in an almost replica of his first-innings dismissal to leave India wobbling at 59 for 3 from 13.1 overs.
Enter Pant. Exit Pant. But in the interim, in just 33 balls, he threatened a he. Floated up a dream. Not just any ordinary counterattack, but the context elevated it beyond a simple dare.
Pant’s blitzkrieg
Despite trying to play the conventional waiting game and failing in the first three Tests, his shots in the fourth Test at Melbourne were bashed as irresponsible. It created a stir in the Indian cricket fans, triggered a debate in the Indian camp on balancing the ‘natural game with playing the situation’, and had the former cricketers shaking their heads. He had taken at least 8 body blows, more than ever in his career on a day, in the first innings with the most patient 40 he is probably ever going to stitch.

In Rishabh Pant’s 33-ball, 61-run innings:
🔥 6 fours🔥 4 sixes
And here’s every one of those boundaries #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Hc3Sx66DSr
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 4, 2025
On Saturday, he took his pound of flesh for every flesh wound he suffered a day earlier. He charged out the first ball to slam Boland, the Australian thorn in India’s psyche, over wide long-on. Two balls later, he tried his lap shot — the same stroke that dismissed him in the first innings of Melbourne, and then it’s as if he said ‘Stuff this, I am just going to wallop everything’.
In a Sydney minute, everything changed. Or so it seemed. At the beer-soaked floors where shoes get stuck in the stands beyond fine leg, the crowd went berserk, rushing back from the beer stalls to watch him explode.
He carted Pat Cummins over square-leg, tonked Boland over his head, smeared Beau Webster for a hattrick of fours in all directions before going down on his knee a few balls later; the ball was thrown back from deep square-leg stands.
Australia threw Starc at him. Pant whipped the pacer over long-leg and biffed him over midwicket for two stunning sixes. Starc had a smile — what else could he do? It’s then that Cummins had had enough. He got himself on, hurled a tempter wide outside off and sucked Pant into going after it — edge and gone. Pant was gutted, Cummins and Aussies were anything but, and everyone on the ground must have known that the game was about to change again.
In between, just like Kohli, Shubman Gill would repeat his first-innings dismissal. Sort of. Perhaps inspired or carried away, depending on the point of, Gill went charging down the track to Webster, losing his shape, balance, and unsurprisingly inside-edging the nipbacker only to see Alex Carey take a lovely catch diving down the leg side.
Jadeja, India’s most sensible batsman overseas
But Ravindra Jadeja, India’s most sensible batsman overseas, the one who doesn’t have to change his technique and approach one bit whatever the conditions and the most underrated of the lot, kept doing what he does. Tap, push, punch, leave, and defend. And he kept company with Pant, holding fort in the aftermath even as Nitish Reddy fell trying to chip over the infield but failing to clear mid-off.
Now it’s up to two of India’s skilfully-dogged batsmen in Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who also can shift gears if needed, to try to take India to a total they feel they can apply the squeeze on the Australians, aided the match pressure. Not just the match, but the series and the trophy are on line.
On the match eve on Thursday, Bumrah had walked past the statue of Fred Spofforth, hailed as ‘The Demon Bowler’, who had in 1884-85 bowled Australia to a famous six-run win. (Express Photo)
The dramatic Test series without dazzling-quality batting units in both teams who have unsurprisingly succumbed to quality bowling in conditions that have abetted pacers has now hurtled along frantically to a possibly goosebumps-Sunday finish at the SCG.
Will Bumrah be fit to bowl? On the match eve on Thursday, he had walked past the statue of Fred Spofforth, hailed as ‘The Demon Bowler’, who had in 1884-85 bowled Australia to a famous six-run sensational win with a six-for.
With 20 runs needed for England that day with four wickets left, Spofforth had broken a 102-run stand and then taken the final wicket to earn himself a bronze statue in front of the outdoor nets.
The demon bowler of the current series, and the cricketing world right now, Bumrah might well not get a chance to have a final say in a series that he had started with a tremendous sucker punch on the first day at Perth. Or will he surprise the world turning up to bowl and perform? And if not him, can India find others to whip up some demonic magic?

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