PTI
India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah’s ability to deceive batters and his excellent balance in delivery stride makes him the player to watch out for in the upcoming marquee Test series against England, feels fast bowling great Stuart Broad.
Broad compared Bumrah with legendary Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath, saying Bumrah has the “most balanced delivery stride” in world cricket.
“He (Bumrah) jogs in, you will be thinking ‘this will be 70 miles an hour’ and it hits you at 90 and you don’t get a real flow. When I faced Shoaib Akhtar, he sprinted in at a hundred miles an hour and delivered at a hundred miles an hour,” Broad said in the podcast ‘For the Love of Cricket’, which also featured England batter Jos Buttler.
“You were ready, but Bumrah is so balanced in his run-up, it’s a short stride pattern, so he never gets overstride and off balance. I look at Glenn McGrath (who) had the most balanced delivery stride that I watched and Bumrah is the same.”
Bumrah is not expected to play all five Tests of the series, which has been confirmed by chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir as part of workload management.
Broad, who took 604 wickets from 167 Tests before retiring in 2023, said Bumrah will take a “shed load of wickets” if he plays in all five matches of the series starting in Leeds on Friday.
“He is going to be certainly one to watch and certainly someone that England won’t want to play five Tests, because if he does, he’s going to pick up a shed load of wickets, isn’t he?
“There was that great bit of play in Australia where he got in a scrap in the last over with (Sam) Konstas and (Usman) Khawaja was on strike. He nicked Khawaja off, got him out. He was screaming and roaring.
“He has definitely got that; every fast bowler has to have that emotion in him, but there is a real sharpness to his competitive spirit (and) that he has grown up in that (Virat) Kohli captaincy era.”
Buttler said there isn’t a bigger superstar in the touring Indian side than Bumrah.
“I don’t think there’s a bigger star in that touring squad than Jasprit Bumrah,” he said.
“But facing him, he creates awkward angles, the run-up is unique, the action is unique. I think I have seen the side-ons (bowlers) but he delivers the ball from about a foot or even a bit more closer to the batsman than the average bowler, so the ball feels quicker even than the pace he is actually bowling at.”
Buttler said Bumrah’s action could make one feel like a sitting target.