India shrug off Bumrah injury to claim first-innings lead in Australia

India outlasted Australia for 181 in the absence of captain Jasprit Bumrah, surviving an extraordinary second day of the carefully balanced fifth Test with a lead of 145.

Bumrah took the first wicket to put India in motion at the sun-drenched Sydney Cricket Ground, but he later left with the team doctor for medical scans of his back after suffering spasms.

To rout Australia and give India a slender first-innings lead of four runs at Tea, Prasidh Krishna (32-41), Mohammed Siraj (33-51), and Nitish Kumar Reddy (5-1) stepped up to fill the significant bowling void left by their captain.

However, the wicket had still plenty of spice, and paceman Scott Boland added four wickets to his four-wicket total on Friday as Australia dug deep into the middle order and slammed the Indian batting top.

In a stunning 28-ball half-century to end the rot, Rishabh Pant threw off the shackles and scored some incredible shots, but he also departed for 61 in the final inning, with Australia’s captain Pat Cummins taking the day’s 14th wicket.

At the close of play, Washington Sundar, unbeaten on six, and Ravindra Jadeja, who was eight without out, were the only ones who could claim their fourth victim, according to Boland, who had just eight more to play for.

When asked how big of a lead the Indian bowlers would feel at ease defending, possibly without Bumrah, Krishna responded, “As many runs as possible would be great for us.”

“We don’t really know how the wicket is behaving. It’s going up, it’s going down. If you can be aggressive, there is risk involved, but you get a reward of runs”.

Andrew McDonald, the coach of Australia, said his plans for Day Three were simple because he believed the “generational” bowling talent on both teams contributed to the number of losing wickets.

“First and foremost, we’ve got four wickets to get, to try to keep that total as low as possible”, he told reporters.

“There’s a long way still to go … so we’ll see what happens”.

As the momentum shifted back and forth between the crowd of 47 and 257 as it has with the series, which Australia leads 2-1, they certainly got their money’s worth.

Debutant all-rounder Beau Webster, whose 57 was Australia’s highest score, was cheered to the rafters for his half-century and again when he removed Shubman Gill for 13 later in the day to claim his maiden Test wicket.

After Bumrah’s departure, Virat Kohli, who is currently India’s captain, was booed to the crease and cheered back to the boundary rope after Boland caught him in the slips for a timid six.

Boland is quickly becoming a cult hero in Australia, and the most audible roar came when he bowled a peach of a delivery to end a promising innings on 22 to win opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s off stump.

The morning session saw the dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne by Bumrah, who increased his series total to 32 wickets on an average of 13.06, to add to the Indian fans’ cheer.

When Steve Smith was caught in the slips for 33 to break up a fifth-wicket partnership with Webster and leave the former Australia captain five short of 10,000 Test runs, Krishna also waved the Indian flags.

India, who dropped captain Rohit Sharma for the match, need to win in Sydney to square up the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.