India’s pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has become an icon in world cricket. His unique action is copied by budding cricketers around the world. Bumrah proved his mettle in the recently-concluded ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 by helping India win the trophy. Often, videos of young kids copying his action are posted on social media and go viral. Recently, the video of a young Pakistani kid copying his bowling action was making rounds on social media. It caught Pakistan’s legendary bowler Wasim Akram’s attention as well. Akram had a special message for the young kid.
“Wah Jee Wah, look at that control and action exactly like the great Jasprit Bumrah. Video of the day for me,” he wrote on his X account.
He also used the hashtag cricket has no boundaries, with the tweet signifying how cricket unites arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
Bumrah’s dream World Cup run
Bumrah played a pivotal role in India’s World Cup 2024 victory. He won the ‘Player of the Tournament award’ for his staggering 15 wickets at an average of just 8.26 and an even more impressive economy rate of 4.17. His economy rate broke former West Indies spinner Sunil Narine’s T20 World Cup 2014 record as well.
Bumrah was captain Rohit Sharma’s go-to bowler for breaking partnerships, blocking runs, or putting pressure on batters early on in the innings. Australian legend Brett Lee also applauded Bumrah as he told Sports Tak, “His best is yet to come. He’s like Benjamin Button, getting better with age’.
Bumrah gets much-needed rest
So far, the 30-year-old is likely to be rested for the entire tour against Sri Lanka as part of workload management. India are scheduled to play three ODIs and T20Is each. Sri Lanka’s tour of India will begin on July 27 with T20I series. It will be newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir’s the first assignment. Reportedly, Gambhir has urged senior players Bumrah, Rohit and Virat Kohli to play in the ODI series.
While it is not clear whether Bumrah will play in the ODI series, he will return to action for two-Test series against Bangladesh at home. He is currently India’s leading wicket-taker in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle.
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