Jasprit Bumrah on Wednesday (February 7) became the first Indian pacer to achieve the No.1 position in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers.
Bumrah accomplished this feat on the back of his nine-wicket haul (9/91) in the second Test match against England in Vizag. Thanks to his heroics, India registered a series-equalling 106-run victory.
Bumrah’s Player of the Match performance saw him climb three places on the latest Test rankings for bowlers. He displaced teammate Ravichandran Ashwin from the pole position.
The right-arm quick is just the fourth player from India to top the bowling charts, with Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Bishan Bedi being the other to reach the summit previously.
After getting the ultimate recognition from ICC, Jasprit Bumrah also received rich praise from the South African legend AB de Villiers for his brilliance across the two innings in Vizag.
Speaking on his Youtube channel, De Villiers started with a statement in Hindi, "Bumrah shandaar bowling karta hai", before he lauded the fast bowler for outbowling his colleagues against England.
"Bumrah bowls brilliantly. What a bowler, Jasprit Bumrah! He outbowled other Indian bowlers, but I feel the others took their turn, and it was hunting in packs," De Villiers said.
"Their (other Indian bowlers) figures don't look great, yes. But they did play a role in setting up for him. It is not an individual sport, and this is what I like about this Indian attack."
Bumrah produced an incredible spell of reverse-swing bowling in England’s first innings to bundle out the visitors for 253, returning with the remarkable figures of 6/45 in 15.5 overs.
In particular, the dismissal of Ollie Pope went viral on social media as Bumrah cleaned up the right-hander with a beaming in-swinging yorker.
"That (yorkers) is certainly his (Bumrah's) weapon across all the formats he plays in. Playing against him, I would always think of the yorker as his stock threat or main threat. Even in Tests, he picks a lot of wickets with that," De Villiers said.
On a different note, AB de Villiers also lauded Shubman Gill’s century in the second Test. Coming into the match, Gill had not scored a single half-century at No. 3 and questions were raised over his place in the side.
However, Shubman rose to the occasion when India needed him the most in their second innings. He slammed 104 off 147 balls with 11 fours and 2 sixes, propelling the hosts to 255 and helping them set a daunting target of 399 for the tourists.
"He (Gill) came to Vizag and just showed the incredible character that the young man has got. What an incredible player!
"I don't know if he has worked on his technique at all or has anything changed, but it just shows you the talent he has got," De Villiers said.
"In the second innings of a big Test match, that was a telling hundred, and let me tell you, that was the difference between the two sides," he remarked.
(With PTI Inputs)
