Jasprit Bumrah won his first major title in an India shirt when he produced a player-of-the-tournament winning performance at the recent 2024 T20 World Cup. Bumrah consistently delivered throughout the competition and won India matches from difficult positions.
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Against Pakistan in the first round, he was at his best with the batters struggling to score against him and when they looked in control, he returned for a fresh spell to get rid of a well-set Mohammad Rizwan to put India on top as they successfully defended a lot score.
Stunningly, 15 of his 24 deliveries in the four-over spell were dot balls.
In the final, with South Africa needing 30 off 30, Bumrah was at the forefront again as he built pressure with dot balls piling one after another and eventually India won the match to become the champions. From eight matches, Bumrah took 15 wickets at 8.27 and an economy of 4.18.
A year ago, Bumrah was recovering from a back surgery that he underwent after being persistently troubled by a stress fracture which forced him to miss a series of high-profile events.
Praising Bumrah, former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja says there hasn’t been a better all-format fast bowler than the Indian star.
“In my book, he’s (Bumrah) a legend of all three formats,” Raja said on his YouTube channel. “To me, there hasn’t been a better bowler than Bumrah to have played all three formats of the game. You can see a boy who lacked confidence, has an awkward bowling action, dealt with fitness issues but he came back fully fit and won India the world cup.”
He drew comparisons with Pakistan stars and feels that some times it appears they aren’t happy representing the team.
“On the other hand, the graph of our greats keeps plummeting. Don’t we have fitness gurus? Have the players lost their will to play for Pakistan? Do they just want to play in leagues and make money?” Raja said.
“I cannot understand the reason why they play cricket. Are they playing for pride? If that’s the case, why isn’t it reflecting through performances? If you are playing for money, then how much do you want? PCB has been giving them enough. What is the mental block when playing against India? Why did you lose to USA? Why is there no unity in the team? This is a privileged position. When they play, it appears they don’t want to and look like a team of schoolboys,” he added.
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