"Little Bit Off-Colour...": Ex-India Selector Delivers Brutal Verdict On Jasprit Bumrah

The opportunity for India to consolidate on the high of winning the Perth Test by 295 runs was squandered away through a ten-wicket defeat in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide. At Adelaide Oval, the Australian bowlers kept their deliveries much fuller than the Indian bowling attack on the first two days of the game, which set the platform for them to win by ten wickets and level the five-match series 1-1. According to Jatin Paranjape, the former India cricketer and national selector, India's failure to bowl fuller deliveries, in contrast to Australia's approach, cost them the match. “I thought we didn't bowl as well as we did in Perth. I thought the Australians kind of bowled much better than what the Indian team bowled. I thought Bumrah also was a little bit off-colour.”

“I don't think they pitched the ball as further up to the batters than they should have. So this is the big reason why Australia went on to get a 150-run lead. The wicket in Adelaide helped the bowlers a lot, and not bowling well there was like a big miss for India,” said Paranjape to IANS in an exclusive conversation.

India's bowlers also failed to exploit Travis Head's weakness against short ball, which led to the left-handed batter making a brilliant 140. Paranjape, the co-founder of KheloMore and a member of the BCCI Cricket Advisory Committee, believes India's bowling strategy against Head in the remaining three matches will be the most critical factor in determining the series outcome.

“Travis Head is somebody who goes about his batting as per his will and his technique is extremely different, which makes him a very dangerous player. Like, he scored 140 runs in 141 balls on such a challenging pitch. So if he gets off to a start, India will have to