For much of this Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia’s innings have been a two-note affair. There have been the overs Jasprit Bumrah has bowled, involving thirty-two wickets at 13, and the overs spent waiting for him to bowl, for which the analysis has been forty-four wickets at 37.
One contrast only could have been greater: the cricket with him in the ground, and not. At around 2pm today, footage circulated of Bumrah, with an attendant, leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground’s undercroft like a celebrity being smuggled furtively from a nightclub. He had bowled a single ineffective over after lunch before leaving the field; now, with the word ‘scans’ being whispered, he climbed a little uncomfortably into the back seat of a dark minivan, and disappeared into the distance. With him, it seemed, receded India’s chances in a Test bolting towards a conclusion.
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