Legendary England fast bowler Stuart Broad said he ‘used to hate’ facing Jasprit Bumrah during his playing days because of the unusualness in his bowling action. Broad who retired after the Ashes against Australia last year, said Bumrah’s deliveries are ‘incredibly hard to pick’ like Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga.
“Facing him isn’t like facing anyone else in the world and I used to hate it. Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, with his slingy round-arm release, had that point of difference about him and Bumrah has something similar in that his deliveries are incredibly hard to pick up,” Broad wrote in his column for Daily Mail.
Bumrah picked up 9/91 in an unbelievable display of fast bowling on a placid Visakhapatnam surface in the second India vs England Test match. So good was he in both innings of the Test match, that his performance is being hailed as one of the best by any fast bowler in Test matches in India. His incredible 6/45 which also made him the fastest Indian pacer to 150 Test wickets was a major reason behind India’s 106-run victory in Visakhapatnam.
The way he set up Joe Root, a man with 11000 Test runs behind his back and the yorker he bowled Ollie Pope, the player of the match of the first Test, was nothing short of spectacular.
‘If someone like Root is struggling against Bumrah, everyone will’: Broad
That was the 8th time that Bumrah got Root in Test cricket. Broad said if Root is having trouble coping with Bumrah then no batter in the world can breathe easy.
“If someone as good as Joe Root is habitually struggling with a particular bowler, you can bet your bottom dollar that every batter on the Test scene will be.
“Jasprit Bumrah has a unique action and there’s no doubting that India are a much better team with him in it. He’s an incredible Twenty20 bowler, but as his record of 152 wickets at just 20.28 runs each attests, he is even more effective in Test cricket. Statistically, he is right up there with the very best to have played the game,” Broad wrote.
Delving more on Bumrah’s effectiveness, Broad, who has more than 600 Test wickets to his name, said the way Bumrah suddenly gathers momentum in his bowling stride, makes it difficult for the batters to pick him.
“Because he trots in from a very calm, short, shuffling run-up, he generates no real energy and there is therefore no real build-up to the ball suddenly being upon you at the striker’s end. It can be very disconcerting.”
Bumrah said he learnt reverse swing ever before the conventional one to pick wickets on unresponsive pitches in India. Broad said that makes him even more dangerous.
“What makes him so dangerous when reverse-swing comes into play is that he doesn’t tend to get the ball hooping – and therefore needing to start it on an exaggerated line to have an effect – but moving a very subtle amount to keep batters guessing.”