I am Bumrah, hear me roar, in a voice too loud to ignore… And, boy oh boy, did he roar or what? He roared and bored holes into the Australian batting line-up, leaving them gored and defeated on the ground.
Jasprit ‘Jassi’, ‘Bumrah the Blaster’ (Sky Sports) led India’s ‘Wizards of Perth’ (Hindustan Times) to a ruthless victory over Australia in the first Test match Down Under. To modify the name of a popular old Hindi TV serial—Jasprit Jaisa Koi Nahin.
After the battle was won, the media had fun-pun headlines: a ‘Perthfect win’ (PTI), a ‘Perth Perfect Turnaround’ for India (The Indian Express), ‘Perth Shattering’ (The Times of India), or a ‘Perthetic Humiliation’ (Sydney Morning Herald) for the Aussies.
And then came that roar: again and again, replays dwelt on the moment Bumrah prized out Travis Head in the second innings—and let out that belly-busting roar of delight (Star Sports, Hotstar).
Cricket journalists haven’t enjoyed covering a match so much in a while. That’s one of the joys for sports lovers: you get to enjoy the game, hail victory, cry over defeat, and then read some eloquent, often amusing, thoughts on the state of play or listen to delightful commentary. Or as the female commentator on Triple M Radio (Australia) concluded, “My goodness me, what a win, gents…”
Great disappointment can be seen on faces of Australian Commentators and Aaron Finch as they realised that India had defeated Australia by 295 runs.#INDvsAUS #INDvAUS #BGT2025 pic.twitter.com/bkcR0eKkIq
— Field Vision (@FieldVisionIND) November 25, 2024
Read how Bharat Sundaresan summed up the importance of being Jasprit Bumrah: “How much fun it must be to have Jasprit Bumrah at your disposal as a Test captain. Especially when the captain is Bumrah himself.”
Or this: “Bumhrah knocks over Head..” (Sky)—it’s correct, but it sounds all wrong.
Brutal Aussies—off the field
Give it to the Aussies, they take a defeat on the chin and are brutal on their own team while praising the opposition. Former cricketer Matthew Hayden, in the Star Sports corner, explained why: “We are a sports-loving nation…we loved this performance.”
Less kind words were reserved for the Australian team—‘Monstrous Loss,’ wrote nine.com. And The West Australian had a photograph of star batter Steve Smith with a skull emoji and ‘RIP’ written as an obituary. The Australian said, “India demolish Aussies in their own backyard,” while The Sydney Morning Herald wanted to know if batters Labuschagne, Smith, and Khwaja—who failed in this game—were “undercooked, overcooked or both”. Other words used to describe the Australians were “inexplicable”, “unbelievable”, and “crushing defeat”.
And our players complain about the Indian sports media.
There’s so much vitality in the TV and radio commentaries, never mind their accuracy or fairness. It’s all about providing off-the-pitch entertainment to cricket fans: SEN Cricket commentary has so much energy it could recharge all the mobiles in the stadium while offering stiff competition to Star Sports Hindi commentary in the decibel department.
It’s also pretty eloquent: here’s Gerard Whateley on SEN radio (yes, it still exists): “Australia one for none on a catastrophic day…Cummins has come in as nightwatchman… so as the ship goes down, the captain stands on the burning deck.” The pained expression on his fellow commentator’s face reflects each telling blow as Whateley delivers it.
🗣️ "As the ship goes down, the captain must stand on the deck and this is Australia's sinking ship." – @GerardWhateley
🇦🇺 Australia's day got even darker in the final minutes of day two 😐
🚨 Whateley special 9am AEDT 🚨#AUSvIND 🏏 pic.twitter.com/mJBDUoUGz7
— SEN Cricket (@SEN_Cricket) November 24, 2024
Speaking of eloquence, how about this from Jatin Sapru while speaking to centurion Jaiswal: “Azad Maidan ka parinda, Australia ke satvi aasmaan pe…”
#YashasviJaiswal opens up to #JatinSapru about his unforgettable knock, the invaluable support from #KLRahul, and what it means to shine on the big stage! 🙌,
📺 #AUSvINDOnStar 👉 1st Test, Day 4, LIVE NOW! #AUSvIND #ToughestRivalry pic.twitter.com/skCbukteGD
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) November 25, 2024
All-round coverage
What’s made sports coverage even more enjoyable is having lovers of the game or experts share their opinions across different media. YouTube and podcasts are filled with people you have never heard of giving you ball-by-ball commentary, summing up the game after each session, and holding forth in long post-(match)-mortems.
The Grade Cricketer podcast went after India for winning, with dollops of Aussie humour: “India, why are you doing this to us? Can’t you just beat us normally?”
India, why are you doing this to us?@bigbasket_com pic.twitter.com/Kvib6lqrWz
— The Grade Cricketer (@gradecricketer) November 24, 2024
On Instagram and other social media platforms, everyone is Sunil Gavaskar, Adam Gilchrist, or even a Cheteshwar Pujara, who now shares his views on Star Sports—and who knows a thing or two about playing long innings in Australia.
Then there are cricket writers who like challenging themselves: Geoff Lemon from The Guardian is one of them. He appears to have woken up and asked his reflection in the mirror: ‘Can I write about India’s victory without naming key Indian players? Yes, we can, replied his mirror image.
So he wrote this: “India have a young opener with apparently boundless ability, a veteran champion in the middle order, a wicketkeeper whose comeback to the game is a miracle beyond even some of the innings he plays, the best fast bowler in the world, and a supporting cast of high class in both departments.”
In India, it was Star Sports and Hotstar that telecast the matches live. They have lined up a full team of 11 commentators in different languages for the purpose, including Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Harsha Bhogle, Wasim Akram, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, and David Warner—who, while sneaking around the stadium, caught Rohit Sharma in his first net practice on Monday.
Not enough for you? How about the short videos such as ‘Sledge Hammer’, where you hear on-ground banter and insults? Or Shaz and Waz back together—remember Shastri and Akram?
And they’re using technology even when there’s no need: the on-pitch post-match analysis show has commentators zooming in from wherever they are—Viyay Murali in a Stetson and shades, and Manjrekar joined Hayden and Gavaskar but left their shadows behind.
The Australian commentators did a pretty good job when it came to pronouncing Indian names. They twisted their tongues around ‘Yashasvi’ well enough, but for some reason, had difficulty with Rishabh’s surname: some said ‘Pant’ as in ‘Pants’, while others pronounced something like ‘Part’.
No matter—the Indian wicketkeeper took the catches, which is all that matters.
It was a memorable game, and the media made it even better. Who knows what the next match in Adelaide will bring…
(Edited by Prashant)