India have settled on their XI: Bumrah

Stand-in India captain Jasprit Bumrah has provided an update on the make-up of his side’s playing XI for the opening Test against Australia in Perth.

Bumrah acknowledged he will captain the team in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma, and also confirmed that India had already settled on their XI for the crucial ICC World Test Championship contest. The right-armer revealed the exact playing XI would not be announced until just prior to play commencing on Friday and after the toss.

“We have finalised our playing XI and you will get to know tomorrow morning before the start of the match,” Bumrah said. India enter the five-match series against Australia needing to win four matches to earn a third straight appearance in the World Test Championship Final and Bumrah said the side was well prepared for the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

“When you win you start from zero but when you lose, then also you also start from zero. We are not carrying any baggage from India. Yes, we have our learnings from New Zealand series but those were different conditions and our results here have been different,” Bumrah said.

Although Bumrah is likely to relinquish the captaincy when Rohit eventually does arrive in Australia, the pacer said he was a big advocate of fast bowlers holding the responsibility of being skipper. “I have always advocated for pacers being captains. They are tactically better. Pat (Cummins) has done a phenomenal job. There are a lot of models in the past as well. Kapil Dev and lot of other captains in the past. Hopefully a start of a new tradition,” Bumrah added.