Jasprit Bumrah is the most complete bowler across formats: Ricky Ponting

Jasprit Bumrah has been the most consistent bowler of India for quite some time. Be it Test cricket, ODIs or T20Is, he’s Rohit Sharma’s go-to bowler in any pressure situation. Thus, it’s not a surprise that Team India is missing him in the ongoing Asia Cup. 

Fortunately, the speedster will be fit for the T20 World Cup. His availability against Australia and South Africa is still doubtful but will join Bhuvneshwar Kumar and others in the attack during the World Cup in Australia. He’s currently undergoing rehabilitation at National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Meanwhile, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting called the 28-year-old the most complete bowler across the format. He currently has 128 wickets from 30 Test matches and out of which, most are in games away from home. He also has 190 scalps to his name in white-ball International cricket. Thus, he has proved his mettle and is one of Ricky Ponting’s top five players in T20 cricket.

“He (Bumrah) is probably the most complete bowler across Test cricket, One Day cricket and T20 cricket in the world right now. Very good with the new ball when anyone decides to use him that way,” said the two-time World Cup winning captain in the latest episode of the ICC Review.

Ponting picks his top five T20I players

With the rapid growth of T20 cricket across the globe, it’s tough to pick just five best players of the format. Ricky Ponting, however, found it easy as he included Rashid Khan, Babar Azam, Hardik Pandya, Jos Buttler and Bumrah.

Given the fact that Australia are the world champions at the moment, picking no one from his nation left some people confused. However, justifying his decision, Ponting said that the main reason for picking Rashid as number one is because of his consistency. 

Pakistan captain Babar Azam was picked at number two for his record in the format while the 47-year-old called Hardik as the best all-rounder in T20 cricket at the moment. “He understands the game better and he understands his game better than ever before and right now he's probably the best allrounder in the world in T20 cricket, and could potentially be in ODI cricket,” said the Aussie legend.

Jos Buttler, who is considered as one of the best batters in T20 cricket features fourth in Ponting’s list while Bumrah took the fifth spot.