India's Bumrah revels in special win over Australia
Bowled out for a modest 150 in their first innings, India responded through pace spearhead Bumrah to skittle Australia for 104 and the tourists posted a mammoth 487-6 declared with Yashasvi Jaiswal (161) and Virat Kohli (100 not out) leading the way.
India's stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah praised his young team for showing character under pressure and said he enjoyed leading them to a special victory in the opening Test against hosts Australia on Monday.
Bowled out for a modest 150 in their first innings, India responded through pace spearhead Bumrah to skittle Australia for 104 and the tourists posted a mammoth 487-6 declared with Yashasvi Jaiswal (161) and Virat Kohli (100 not out) leading the way.
Bumrah finished with a match haul of eight wickets as India bowled out Australia again on the fourth day to seal a 295-run victory.
"Obviously, a special win, my first win as captain, I'm very happy with that and more happy with the performance of the team. We were put under pressure and showed character," Bumrah told reporters at the Perth Stadium.
"Whenever tough scenarios come, I ask myself 'how I can contribute?' We're a new side so I wanted to put myself in tough scenarios when we needed to do something, to make the job a bit easier for the new guys coming in."
India's win came in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who took a break to care for his newborn child, while batsman Shubman Gill was out injured.
"Going forward, we can take a lot of confidence from that. Obviously in this game, a lot of positives for us," Bumrah said.
"We scored a lot of runs in the second innings, new guys coming in also chipped in with a lot of runs. And of course Virat scoring a hundred is a great sign for us."
Rohit will return for the second Test in Adelaide starting on Dec. 6.
"I'm not going to tell him I'm going to lead," Bumrah said with a laugh.
"I'm going to help him in whatever capacity I can."
Australia 'well off the mark'
Australia were well off the pace in Perth and have plenty to work on before the second Test in Adelaide, captain Pat Cummins said.
"You're sitting in the change room after a loss like that and it hurts. When a team declares on you, it's never an amazing feeling," the 31-year-old told reporters, referring to India's third innings declaration of 487-6 to set the hosts a massive target of 534.
"The biggest challenge, and the most important thing, is how do you bounce back ... We're clearly well off the mark, there's a lot to work on."
The Australia bowlers were impressive on day one, dismissing the visitors for 150 but the local batsmen were not up to the task, slumping to 67-7 in a session on the way to 104 all out.
Cummins defended his batsmen, however, saying there had been plenty of times when they had dragged the team's bowlers out of tight situations.
Number three Marnus Labuschagne is in the spotlight after being trapped lbw twice, scoring a laboured two off 52 balls and following it up with a duck.
"At his best he's one of the scariest propositions for opposition bowlers to bowl at," Cummins said.
"Marn, along with a few guys, didn't have the week we would have wanted."
Wholesale changes are not on the cards for the hosts, who have not won a home series after losing the opening test since the West Indies toured in 1968-69.
"This is a sample size of one. Five days ago we thought this was our best 11 so I dare say there won't be many changes going into Adelaide, but I'm not a selector," the skipper said.
India's Virat Kohli celebrates after reaching his century.Reuters
The match was swept away from Australia by 22-year-old opener Yashasvi Jaiswal's 161 and Virat Kohli, who made 100 not out to break a 16-month century drought.
"We couldn't get the breakthroughs, I thought they played really well. Not much really went our way this game," Cummins said.
"Some of (the plans) looked pretty good but didn't necessarily come off straight away, others not so much but I thought there was some good information gathered there that we can take into the rest of the series."
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