Was ‘naive’ going into contest against Jasprit Bumrah, admits Nathan McSweeney: ‘Tough work is an understatement’

India might have lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year, but no one can deny the impact of Jasprit Bumrah. The speedster was unavailable in the Sydney Test’s final innings, making Australia’s chase easier. Who knows what would have happened had Bumrah been available? Australia batter Nathan McSweeney has now opened up about facing the World No.1 Test bowler in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

McSweeney revealed that he thought facing Bumrah would not be a big deal but was proven wrong once he took the field to open the batting for Australia.

The right-handed batter had a difficult time against Bumrah as he was dismissed by the speedster 4 times out of 5. As a result, he was dropped from the Australian side for the last two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

“Yeah, tough work is probably an understatement. He’s an incredible bowler. I was probably naïve going into it, never faced him before and (thinking) he’ll be fine. But he’s an incredible bowler that has a great skill but just relentless ability to pitch the ball in the area where you don’t want as a batter,” McSweeney said on the Willow Talk Podcast.

“So, it was a very tough challenge but also gave me a hope that no one kind of had great success against him and everyone was trying to tackle him at the same time and no one was playing him with ease, which gave me a little bit of confidence,” he added.

Jasprit Bumrah’s injury setback

Speaking of Bumrah, the India speedster suffered a back injury during the Sydney Test against Australia. He was ruled out of the Champions Trophy, which India won.

As per ESPNCricinfo, Bumrah is also set to miss the initial few matches of the IPL for Mumbai Indians and will link up with the franchise in April.

Once he gets the clearance from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, Bumrah will join the Mumbai Indians squad.

This is the first time Bumrah has been sidelined with a back injury since undergoing surgery in March 2023.

Coming back to McSweeney, originally a middle-order batter, was named in Australia’s Test squad after Australia failed to find an opening partner after David Warner‘s Test retirement.

McSweeney was then chosen to open the batting alongside Usman Khawaja. The right-hander came up with scores of 10,0, 39, 10*, 9 & 4. He managed 72 runs in three matches, and this run led to him being ousted from the side and Sam Konstas earning a call-up.