Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian pacer, took nine wickets in the second Test match to lead India to victory. He broke a few records in the process becoming one of the quickest to get to 150 wickets in Test matches.
Bumrah took six wickets in the first innings and three in the second as India won the second Test by 106 runs. England chasing 399 to win were bowled out for 292 in their second innings. He was named the Man of the Match for his bowling exploits.
Dale Steyn spoke very highly of Bumrah’s ability to bowl wicket-taking yorkers on Indian pitches. He further said that just a handful of bowlers have the same quality as Bumrah does.
“I don’t think there’s any Test bowlers right now who are able to run in and bowl essentially wicket-taking yorkers. ” To take wickets in Test matches, there are probably a handful of guys who could do that. Trent Boult was one of that, Mitchell Starc maybe. And obviously, Bumrah,” Steyn said on Friday, as quoted by PTI.
Steyn is currently working as the bowling coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the SA20. He spoke to the reporters from the sidelines on Bumrah’s effectiveness as a bowler in diverse conditions across different venues. He said that the Indian pacer takes the surface out of the equation with his accurate yorkers.
“I remember saying ages back that a good yorker bowled in India or South Africa or Australia remains a good yorker because you take the surface out of it, doesn’t matter where you bowled it. You take the pitch away and I think that’s one thing that he’s done really well.” said Steyn.
Jasprit Bumrah Is An All-Round Fantastic Bowler: Dale Steyn
“All round he’s a fantastic bowler. And it’s no surprise with his skiddy kind of action that he’s got that. He takes wickets on those docile pitches, so he’s fantastic,” Steyn added.
The former South African speedster lauded the depth of the current Indian bowling attack expressing confidence in the team’s ability to manage the workload of key players, including Bumrah.
“Being an Indian player, there’s going to be a lot of workload. There’s a lot of cricket that India plays, they’re one of the highly-sought after teams in the world. It seems like India don’t really miss him because the step-in bowlers are up to the standard, and it’s a great credit to the Indian cricket” said the former South African international.
He concluded by saying that good Test bowlers like Japrit Bumrah make good T20 bowlers as well. He considered the change of pace as the biggest weapon of these kinds of bowlers.
“I think good Test bowlers make good T20 bowlers. They have good skill in terms of like when to use a change of pace, when to use this slow ball, when to use their bouncer. I’m hoping that a lot of bowlers will get caught on to that and realise that the more red ball cricket that they play, the better shorter format bowlers they will become,” he concluded saying.
Bumrah is expected to play the third Test match after playing the first two against England. He might be rested in the fourth or the fifth Test match which is a part of the ongoing WTC 2023-25 campaign.
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