Bumrah is same with McGrath in having most balanced delivery stride: Broad

Mumbai: Star 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 the legendary Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath in having 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 sprint 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 over stride and of 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 the five-Tests of the series which has been confirmed by chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir as a part of workload management.

Broad, who took 604 wickets from 167 Tests before retiring in 2023, said Burmah will take a “shedload of wickets” if he plays in all the 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 shedload of wickets, isn’t he? "There was that great bit of play in Australia wherein 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 it 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.

“For me as a right-hander, it always felt like it was coming in, but he could beat me on the outside, and you sort of find yourself in a horrible position, squared up and a bit of a sitting target," said the former England white-ball captain.

“He is a superstar bowler, and that’s what you expect in international cricket, you are going to come up against great players and certainly someone England will need to play well to have good success,” he said.