The former captain of Australia, Ricky Ponting, has praised the premier fast bowler of the Indian side, Jasprit Bumrah, for his terrific contribution with hostile bowling to shoulder the Indian side nearly alone during the recently concluded five-match Test series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 down under.
In his third red-ball trip to Australia, Jasprit Bumrah displayed his incredible ability with the bat, as he finished the series as the leading wicket-taker with the help of 32 scalps in nine innings at an average of 13.06 and a strike rate of 28.37 with the help of three five-wicket and a couple of four-wicket hauls at the best bowling figure of 6/76.
The next best for the tourists in the list is Mohammad Siraj, who ends with 20 wickets in 10 innings at an average of 31.15 and a strike rate of 47.15, thanks to the best of 4/98 even though all of the heroics of the 31-year-old went in vain as India went on to lose the BGT for the very first time since 2014-15 and will not appear for the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 for the very first time.
“Jasprit Bumrah made all of them look silly at different times”- Ricky Ponting
Jasprit Bumrah has earned 64 Test scalps in 23 innings in Australia at an average of 17.15 and a strike rate of nearly 40 with the help of four five-wicket hauls. In this route, the speedster has gone past the former captain of India and the premier all-rounder, Kapil Dev, who celebrated 51 Test scalps down under at 24.58.
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The former captain of Australia, Ricky Ponting, felt that the exploits of the pacer are not only the best fast bowling in Australia that he has seen but perhaps the best pace-bowling ever of all time.
Among those bowlers, who have picked up at least 200 wickets in the longest format, Jasprit Bumrah is the only one to carry an average of below 20 (19.42 to be precise), with the former legendary pacer of West Indies, Malcolm Marshall at the second position with an average of 20.94.
“No doubt, it’s probably the best series of fast bowling I’ve ever seen. Yes, they had good conditions, the fast bowlers, for most of this series. But when you watched him (Bumrah) bowl compared to anyone else in the series, he made batting look so much harder.” The ICC Hall of Famer, Ricky Ponting, expressed this in a recent interaction.
“There’s a lot of quality batting in that Australian top-order as well, but he made all of them at different times look silly.” The veteran added.
When Rohit Sharma, the regular Test captain of the side, was on a break during the opening Test of the series at the Optus Stadium in Perth, it was Jasprit Bumrah who led the Indian side to a 295-run victory to go 0-1 up in the series.
Having been bundled out for just 150 in their first innings, the Gujarat pacer broke the back of the home side with a magical figure of 5/30 in 18 overs with an economy rate of 1.7 and went on to win the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his eight scalps.
The experienced pacer wasn’t present in India’s second innings with the ball during the fifth Sydney Test because of an injury.
“Little frustrating, but sometimes you have to respect your body, you can’t fight your body. (It’s) disappointing, probably missed out on the spiciest wicket of the series. I felt a bit of discomfort during my second spell in the first innings.” Jasprit Bumrah concluded.