Don’t think there’s anyone better than Jasprit Bumrah across formats: Tim Southee

Jasprit Bumrah has proved to be India’s best weapon with the ball. After a career-threatening injury, the ace pacer returned to action in the T20I series against Ireland in 2023. Since then, he has been an integral part of the squad, helping India win the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup 2024. He is captain Rohit Sharma’s go-to man in tough situations and will be extremely vital for the team in the upcoming ten Test matches - two against Bangladesh, three against New Zealand and five against Australia.

Ahead of their tour to India, New Zealand Test captain Tim Southee was full of praise for Bumrah. He lauded the pacer for bouncing back well after his back injury that required surgery. Southee commanded how Bumrah juggled through all the formats and his performance didn’t drop while doing so. The 35-year-old also added that he feels Bumrah is currently the number-one bowler across formats.

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“To be able to firstly bounce back from the major injury and come back, he’s even better than what he was beforehand. Throw in on top of that, having to juggle multiple formats, can be difficult at times as well. He seems to have been able to do that with ease as well. He’s probably more experienced and understands his game a bit more. He probably had that time where he was injured to come back and be recharged, refreshed,” Southee was quoted as saying by News18.

“We are just seeing a great version (of Bumrah) across all three formats. He’s brilliant across all three at the moment. I don’t think there’s anyone that he’s better in (better than him), he is tremendous across all three (formats),” Southee said.

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Bumrah has currently been rested from the upcoming Duleep Trophy. He will be part of the squad for the Bangladesh series but may not play both matches. The team management is keeping a close eye on his workload management as the goal is to keep him fit for the entire Australia series.