India showed their mettle in the recent warm-up fixture against England ahead of the all important T20 World Cup. Team India’s official campaign kicks off with a blockbuster fixture against Pakistan on October 24. Coming back to the warm-up game, India managed to defeat England by seven wickets and with six balls to spare.
Mohammad Shami might’ve picked up more wickets but Jasprit Bumrah was the pick among the fast bowlers because of his economical spell. Bumrah conceded just 26 runs in his four overs and also got rid of the dangerous-looking Jonny Bairstow. There’s no denying the fast bowler’s importance to the Indian side and both Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan also hold the same opinion.
Gambhir thinks that Bumrah could prove to be the X factor in the team. The likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and Varun Chakravarthy could also be crucial for Team India during the T20 World Cup.
“Reckon that KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Varun Chakravarthy and probably an X factor, which will be Jasprit Bumrah,” said Gautam Gambhir while speaking on Star Sports show Follow the Blues.
Although Irfan Pathan considers mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy as an important asset who’s expected to succeed on UAE pitches, he too is of the opinion that Bumrah will be the X factor for the team.
“When we talk about Varun Chakravarthy, it’s clear that he will do really well because he has mystery and also is in top form. But according to me in terms of bowling, there is only one X factor and that is Bumrah. There can’t be a bigger X factor than Bumrah in any other team,” said Irfan Pathan on Bumrah’s importance in the team.
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir also shed light on Virat Kohli and how he would be raring to achieve success with Team India. Ahead of IPL 2021, Kohli shocked the world by announcing that he would be relinquishing his captaincy duties in T20 cricket in order to better manage his workload after the World Cup. There’s no better way for Kohli to depart from that position of honour than by gifting the T20 World Cup to India after a long wait of 14 years.
“All he would be looking for is to win the T20 competition and I’m sure that the entire team will be looking to do that as well because it’s been a long 14 years of wait. I’m sure that it’s not only about Virat Kohli that he’s going to be captaining India for the last time in the T20 format, it’s about just winning the tournament and him winning as captain will be icing on the cake,” stated Gambhir.
