Australia's Nathan McSweeney admitted that he was naive in underestimating Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25.

Bumrah wreaked havoc on the Australian batting line-up in the marquee series, claiming 32 scalps in five Tests, including a match-haul of eight wickets in India’s victory at Perth.

The right-arm quick dismissed McSweeney four out of five times before the opener lost his spot after the third Test.

McSweeney hailed Bumrah as an incredible bowler, acknowledging his great skill and relentless ability to keep troubling batters.

“Yeah, tough work is probably an understatement. He’s an incredible bowler. I was probably naive going into it, never faced him before and (thinking) he’ll be fine. But he’s an incredible bowler that has a great skill but just relentless ability to pitch the ball in the area where you don’t want as a batter,” McSweeney said on the Willow Talk Podcast.

McSweeney said it was a tough challenge against Bumrah but it also gave him some hope as none of the batters during the BGT had great success against the Indian star.

“So, it was a very tough challenge but also gave me a hope that no one kind of had great success against him and everyone was trying to tackle him at the same time and no one was playing him with ease, which gave me a little bit of confidence,” he added.

Jasprit Bumrah has been out of competitive action since the fifth BGT Test against Australia in Sydney, where he sustained a back injury. The fast bowler didn’t feature in India’s triumphant Champions Trophy 2025 campaign as he failed to recover in time.

Bumrah is likely to miss the initial few matches of the IPL 2025 season for Mumbai Indians as well. The five-time champions will open their campaign against Chennai Super Kings on March 23 at Chepauk.