Virat Kohli prepared for the Australia ODI series, batting against fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. How is it facing the paceman in nets? India captain gives insights into how he bowls
Mumbai: India captain Virat Kohli has explained how tough it is to face fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the “nets” as he and his teammates prepared for the first ODI against Australia at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
India and Australia will play three ODIs. The opening game is tomorrow (January 14). Ahead of the contest, Kohli faced Bumrah in the nets and it was a rare day when he dominated, hitting the speedster for boundaries.
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Heaping praise on Bumrah, Kohli spoke about the net session. “According to me he's (Bumrah) the most skilful bowler in the world in any format of the game. To play against him, he brings match intensity in the nets. He's not shy of hitting us on the head or targeting our ribs every now and then,” the skipper said on Monday (January 13) in the pre-match press conference.
“He's a proper, proper bowler and it's always nice to play against the best in the nets. I challenge myself to play well against him, not every day do you get to hit boundaries off Jasprit in the nets,” he added.
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Kohli said it was only for the second time that he had come out of the nets without being dismissed by Bumrah.
“Bumrah has been playing for the team for last four years and this is probably the second time I have ever got out (in) the net, hitting a few against him and not getting out. One was Adelaide before the Test in 2018 and one was today. I'm glad that was the last ball of my net session, because he ran back to his mark, but I got out of the nets,” said Kohli.
Captain hit some boundaries off Bumrah's bowling in the nets today.
Hear what the Skipper has to say about the same 😅 pic.twitter.com/g81FTR5jRT
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav.
Also read: I am not insecure, says Virat Kohli
Australia
Aaron Finch (captain), Alex Carey (vice-captain, wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (vice-captain), Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
(All matches start at 1.30 pm IST)
January 14 (Tuesday): 1st ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
January 17 (Friday): 2nd ODI, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
January 19 (Sunday): 3rd ODI, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
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