India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been bowling exceptionally well ever since his comeback to international cricket following a back surgery.
The right-arm quick played an instrumental role in India’s Asia Cup 2023 triumph and then made the batters dance to his tunes in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup last year.
During the recently held South Africa tour, Bumrah made his return to red-ball cricket and instantly made an impact. He finished the two-match Test series with 12 wickets to his name and earned the Player-of-the-Series award.
Bumrah is currently plying his trade in the five-Test series against England at home. He produced a Player-of-the-Match performance in the second Test in Vizag, picking up nine wickets to achieve the No.1 position in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers.
Jasprit Bumrah’s recent exploits is another reminder for the Indian team management to manage his workload properly.
Recently, South African legend Dale Steyn touched upon this topic and highlighted the importance of using Bumrah judiciously.
According to Steyn, India won't miss Bumrah’s services if the latter is given a break every now and then.
"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 Indian cricket," Steyn, Sunrisers Eastern Cape bowling coach, said ahead of the team's SA20 2024 final against the Durban Super Giants.
"I think good Test bowlers make good T20 bowlers. They have good skill in terms of 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 added.
During his incredible spell in England’s first innings of the Vizag Test, Jasprit Bumrah produced a beaming in-swinging yorker to rattle Ollie Pope’s middle and leg stumps.
Hailing Bumrah as one of the best exponents of yorker, Steyn said the greatness of the Indian quick lies in the fact that he has taken the pitch out of the equation.
"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 them, Mitchell Starc maybe. And obviously, Bumrah," Steyn remarked.
"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. 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."
(With Hindustan Times inputs)
