KL Rahul Reveals The Message To Akash Deep: Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep emerged as unexpected heroes with the bat for Team India on day 4 of the Gabba Test as they successfully avoided the follow-on with their 10th wicket stand of 39* (54).
What this means is that, with plenty of rain around and Australia a bowler down—Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out from the rest of the Test match, and possibly the series—India can save the Gabba Test on day 5 after falling way behind in the first innings.
When Bumrah and Deep got together in the middle, India needed 33 more runs to avoid the follow-on. Surprisingly, Australian captain Pat Cummins had a few fielders on the boundary. There was also a short ball ploy from the Australian speedsters. This allowed Bumrah and Deep to knock around singles comfortably. There were also some twos and boundaries.
In their partnership, both Bumrah and Deep smashed Cummins for a six each, and the latter hit a couple of fours as well.
It was a great contest in the last half-an-hour: KL Rahul Reveals The Message To Akash Deep
KL Rahul, who was India’s top scorer with 84 runs, revealed that the management sent a message to Deep to calm him down when early in his innings he played a few risky shots and missed them.
Rahul said the message sent to Deep was:
“It’s very simple. Try and get those runs and don’t have to try and do it with a boundary. You can just knock it around. They had spread the field, and there were singles to be taken. Just before the message was sent out, we saw Akash try to hit it, and he tried to hit a boundary. It was just a message to calm them down.”
Rahul was in praise of the duo. The scenes in the dressing room reflected India’s relief at avoiding the follow-on as Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir jumped out of their seats to high-five and cheer loudly. The India opener lavished praise on the last-wicket pair for their temperament and shots.
“It was a great contest in the last half-an-hour. Not just the runs they scored or the way they batted, the heart that they showed to keep away the bouncers, to get behind the ball, to defend the ball well, and play some shots. It’s really good. It will give them a lot of confidence and will give the group a lot of confidence,” he added.
India have likely avoided a loss in Brisbane, which means that the series will be level heading into the MCG, where India won on their last two trips.
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