ICC World Cup 2019: Brian Lara Feels Attacking Jasprit Bumrah During the Showpiece Event Won’t be a Great Idea
May 24, 2019 at 6:38 PM
Former Windies skipper and arguably the best batsman of his generation, Brian Lara is of the opinion that Jasprit Bumrah, the No 1 ODI bowler in the world should be treated with due respect by the opposition batsman. The southpaw feels that it won’t be a great idea to opt for a counter-attacking game against the best fast bowler in the world at the moment. He believes that the batters should try and rotate the strike as much as possible when Bumrah is bowling.
Over the years Brian Lara has faced a lot of sensational fast bowlers and his respect for Bumrah shows how good a bowler he is. He is currently on the peak of his game and has the ability to win the World Cup for India with the ball in hand. The southpaw was one of the finest strikers of the ball during his time and took on the attack to great bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Allan Donald and many others. However, he feels that attacking Jasprit Bumrah during the showpiece event might not be the best idea.
“First of all, if I was facing him, I would look to get off the strike (laughs). He is very good and someone who has an awkward action. Batsman has to keep their eyes on him and I would maybe try to apply pressure on him by rotating the strike. In ODI cricket, you have the option of picking up a lot more singles than in T20s.
In the past, you have seen that when batsmen looked to go after guys like Muttiah Muralitharan or Sunil Narine, it is very difficult and Bumrah has that sort of an effect. I would encourage batsmen to try to get six singles from his over. He is one of India’s best bowlers and then maybe you can look at other areas to get runs from.
“I don’t believe counter-attacking against such a good bowler is a great idea. He might have a one-off bad day and then batsmen can capitalise but generally, he has had very good days. I think I would look to pay that respect,” he explained.
Jasprit Bumrah has emerged as one of the finest bowlers in world cricket in the last couple of years. Within a year and few months of his Test debut, Bumrah has already emerged as the spearhead of the bowling attack. He is currently the No 1 ranked ODI bowler and will look to continue his dominance in the quadrennial event. The man has improved by leaps and bounds and is expected to be the most important bowler for them in the tournament.
The Men in Blue will begin their World Cup campaign against South Africa on 5th June. Ahead of the showpiece event, they will play a couple of warm-up games against New Zealand on 25th and 28th May. They have enough big players and will be one of the firm favourites for the upcoming event of the tournament.