India’s Jasprit Bumrah. (FILE)
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting lauded Indian ace bowler Jasprit Bumrah. The pacer not long ago has been out of the side due to a career-threatening injury and missed the 2022 T20 World Cup. However, in the recently concluded edition co-hosted in the West Indies and the USA, the 30-year-old was named Man Of the Tournament.
“There might have been some fears a couple of years ago when the injuries come in and ‘would he come back the same?’, but I think he’s come back better,” Ponting said in the ICC Review. “I’ve said it for a long time, he’s probably been the best multi-format bowler there’s been in world cricket for the last five or six years.”
“If I watch what he did in the T20 World Cup – the pace is still there, there’s nothing that’s changed with the accuracy or what he can deliver. The skillset is all the same. He’s getting better year on year. So, he would rank right up there,” Ponting added. “So when you’ve got that skillset and the consistency that he has, then you’re going to be a great player.”
Ponting also mentioned that the greatest way to measure the calibre of bowlers is to ask the opposition. “And when you talk to opposition batsmen about him (Bumrah) in particular, it’s always, ‘No, he’s a nightmare! You never know what’s going to happen. One’s going to swing, one’s going to seam, he’s going to bowl an in-swinger, he’s going to bowl an out-swinger. And the consistency is there,” he would say.
The former Australian cricketer also would compare the pacer to the likes of Australia’s former great Glenn McGrath and England’s James Anderson. “Look at (Glenn) McGrath, look at (James) Anderson, these guys, their longevity and their skills being able to hold up for such a long period is what separates them from the rest,” he said.
