England’s middle-order Jonny Bairstow has admitted that Jasprit Bumrah has got amazing skills for all three formats of the game. Bumrah was seen at his best in the first Test match against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham as he scalped a total of nine wickets in the game.
India’s gun fast bowler scalped four wickets in the first innings and conceded only 46 runs as he bowled at the top of his game. Bumrah continued his good form as he snared his sixth five-wicket haul in Test matches.
The ace paceman was able to hit the right areas and troubled the England batsmen with his deadly accuracy. In fact, Bumrah wasn’t at his best in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand as he had gone wicketless but returned to his best in the first Test match.
“Well, I can’t tell you all the discussions (about Bumrah), look we know that Bumrah has got amazing skills, doesn’t he?” Bairstow said in a con-call arranged by broadcaster Sony ahead of the second Test.
Bairstow added that Bumrah varies his angle with a short run-up and it is not easy to pick him with an awkward action.
“With his action, he (Bumrah) varies on the crease as to where his delivery points are, and we all know as well and he (is) slightly different in his action with his run up and then just his action in general,” said Bairstow.
“We also got to give him (Bumrah) credit, he is a world class bowler, isn’t it, we have seen that in the IPL, we have seen that in white-ball cricket for India and also in red-ball cricket.”
Bumrah has had a dream start to his Test career and he continues to improve as a cricketer. The fast bowler has also worked on his batting as he scored 28 runs in the first innings and helped India post a score of 278 runs, which gave the visitors a crucial lead of 95 runs.
The second Test match will take place at Lord’s from August 12.