Jasprit Bumrah gets a guard of honor from teammates after scoring 50 in practice match against Australia A.

Friday’s first-class match between the India and Australia A teams saw an unlikely role reversal; as Jasprit Bumrah helped himself to his maiden half-century in competitive cricket!

The Indian spearhead’s batting became a major talking point when he managed to top for the visitors in their second practice match ahead of the test series. Walking in nine-down, Bumrah gave a solid exhibition of his fine batting prowess with some strong-techniqued shots. Alongside Mohammed Siraj (22 off 34), the last-wicket pair added 71-crucial runs to take the team total to 194. 

Bumrah on fire…with the bat!

It just happened to be one of those rare moments of a bowler finding his batting touch in a crunch situation. The highlight of Bumrah’s 50 arrived when he pulled pacer Will Sutherland for a six over fine-leg to get to the milestone. An overjoyed Bumrah acknowledged his ecstatic dressing room teammates with a thumbs-up sign. Sadly, though, his unbeaten 57-ball 55-run cameo reached its end when Mitch Swepson claimed Siraj’s wicket. Talk about an anti-climax!

But there was plenty of drama on the social side of things, as the internet hilariously warmed up to ‘Jassi’s’ second-coming as a batter. Moments after his innings’ conclusion, Twitterati had spammed the internet with Boom-Boom batting memes and trivia. Here’s some of the best of the lot:

https://twitter.com/chal_chal_away/status/1337319231122071552?s=20

But Bumrah’s Indian teammates’ reaction was much more prominent and fetched a lot of traction. They were all spotted giving their star player a guard-of-honor with their hands. Fair to say, Bumrah’s new-found all-round form augurs well ahead of the 4-test series.

https://twitter.com/The_Rebelllion_/status/1337302025327898624?s=20