Whenever Jasprit Bumrah gets desperate to pick up wickets, he becomes slightly wayward: Robin Uthappa

Former Indian keeper-batter Robin Uthappa has reckoned that the Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah tends to lose his rhythm and discipline when he is desperate for wickets, as seen in the second T20I against Australia in Melbourne. 

While India got bowled out for only 125 runs in the second T20I in Melbourne, Australia went on to seal the deal inside 14 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series. Bumrah, on the other hand, conceded only 26 runs in his four-over spell, scalping two wickets. 

"When we were bowling after scoring 125, the start was very important. If we had picked up two or three wickets in the first three or four overs, the game could have been closer because we have quality spinners in the middle overs. I felt we were probably trying too hard to pick up wickets. So we got a little wayward," Uthappa said on Star Sports. 

"I have observed that whenever Bumrah gets desperate to pick up wickets, he becomes slightly wayward, and when he is disciplined and hits a good line and length, he mostly picks up wickets. Australia took full advantage of that waywardness at the start, the way we started with the ball in the second innings," he added.

Speaking on India’s loss, the former keeper-batter asserted that batters could’ve given themselves a little time before going for aggressive approach. Apart from Harshit Rana (35), no other batter tried to put up a partnership with Abhishek Sharma, who scored 68 runs.

"Slightly disappointing, because you had obviously lost the toss, but the batters could have given themselves a little time. They chose the aggressive batting option and they lost too many wickets in the first six overs because of that," he stated.

"Abhishek had to manage the innings after six overs. He had a good partnership with Harshit, but apart from that partnership, no batter stood with him, so that India could have scored at least 150. This team will get a lot of learning from this. This young team will have to understand that there is a slight extra bounce here and they will have to adjust their game plans accordingly," Uthappa concluded.

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