Bumrah played a key role in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 triumph.
Recently, Bumrah played a key role in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 triumph. He was lethal with the new ball and nailed his yorkers to perfection in the death overs, finishing the tournament with 15 wickets to his name at an economy of 4.50 to earn the Player-of-the-Tournament award.
Bumrah was the one who bowled two excellent overs at the death when South Africa looked like chasing 30 runs off 30 balls in the final. He gave just 6 runs for one wicket in those two overs and the Proteas couldn’t handle the pressure.
Impressed with Bumrah’s brilliance, former cricketer-turned-commentator Ravi Shastri has termed India’s pace spearhead as a magician with the ball.
"He (Bumrah) just showed the world what it takes...and you know, it's not often in your career when you have a ball in your hand and you say, 'do this and the ball does that'," Shastri said in the ICC Review.
The former India head coach then highlighted exceptional bowling performance in the group-stage match against arch-rivals Pakistan in New York.
"I think the India-Pakistan (match) because India were made to fight there and realise what the right combination should be going forward in the tournament. That and then of course the (T20 World Cup) final, those final five overs," Shastri stated.
"I'd say one was Jasprit (Bumrah) getting Mohammad Rizwan. Extremely crucial, because that could have tilted the balance of the game. And it happened on the first ball of a new spell," he added.
Shastri mentioned that Bumrah's wicket of South African all-rounder Marco Jansen was his other favorite moment.
"Brought back into the attack and then getting it to reverse and sneak through bat and pad (of Marco Jansen), I thought that was a very, very important wicket at that time," he recalled.
Ravi Shastri also compared Jasprit Bumrah to legends like the late Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
"Very few have done it (change the flow of the game). I thought Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis) had it in their prime when they played white-ball cricket. Shane Warne had it where he could literally tell the ball, go there, pitch there, hit leg stump," Shastri said.
"People who are on top of the game have that ability. I think Bumrah had that in this World Cup," he remarked.
Jasprit Bumrah is currently managing his workload as he has not travelled with the Indian team to Sri Lanka for the ongoing white-ball series. He is likely to return to action in the home Test series against Bangladesh next month.