T20 World Cup: Only Bumrah is executing yorkers consistently in death overs, says Brett Lee

Former Australian gun fast bowler Brett Lee feels only Bumrah is executing yorkers consistently in death overs. Bumrah was at his absolute best in IPL 2024 for Mumbai Indians as he delivered at both ends of the innings.

The ace pacer scalped 20 wickets in 13 matches at an average of 16.80 and a parsimonious economy rate of 6.48. Bumrah has a plethora of variations in his arsenal and he has delivered consistently for the national team.

The talisman has picked 74 wickets in 62 T20I matches at an average of 19.66 and a brilliant economy rate of 6.56. Lee feels barring Bumrah, none of the other bowlers have successfully executed the yorker in the recent past.

“On a general rule, other than Bumrah, we haven’t seen enough fast bowlers nailing their yorkers recently. I want to see fast bowlers bowl more yorkers. I still don’t reckon they execute enough yorkers at the death,” Lee said at the launch of the Legends Intercontinental T20 league recently.

“If you look back at 17 years of the Indian Premier League, on average a yorker goes for a strike rate of less than 100. Which tells me that one run or less per bowler that’s executed. Now, when you bowl a yorker and you’ve got guys who can go down and scoop you over the head, well that puts pressure on you as a bowler. You’ve got to set in the right field and put two men back, third man fine and back and then bowl,” Lee added.

Lee feels it is important to have the right balance between bat and ball. The recently concluded IPL was dominated by the bat as we saw scores of more than 200 become a norm.

“I’m all for batters smoking the ball all over, but there has got to be something for the bowlers too. I’m not asking for a green top, where teams bowled out for 110, because that’s not good for cricket either. You want a good total, I think. Anywhere around that 185 mark to 230 is a good score. We’ve seen scores now of 265, 270, 277. It’s really hard because most bowlers now are going for 45 to 50 off their four overs,” he said.

Bumrah will hold the key for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup. India will begin their World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5th