Jasprit Bumrah should not chase captaincy: Basit Ali

Jasprit Bumrah is the linchpin of the Indian bowling attack as the bowler has bailed out the Indian team several times from treacherous situations. He has become the star attraction after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. However, the pacer highlighted a lack of opportunity for bowlers to lead the Indian side. After the comments, former Pakistan batter, Basit Ali has expressed displeasure over right-arm pacer’s comments. 

Bumrah noted that pacers such as Kapil Dev and Imran Khan have done well as leaders and have also won the World Cups for their respective teams. But, Basit countered the statement and asserted that the veterans became captains after establishing themselves as all-rounders. It is worth noting that Bumrah captained the Indian team in the rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston in 2022. He also led the team when they toured for the T20I series against Ireland in 2023.

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"About Jasprit Bumrah's statement, it's just like how Babar Azam likes captaincy. In my opinion, he should not chase captaincy. He is a top-class bowler and should be focusing just on that. He gave the examples of Kapil Dev and Imran Khan's captaincy. However, they had become all-rounders, which is why they succeeded as captains. They were not appointed captains when they came into their teams as bowlers. This is the difference between a bowler and an all-rounder,” said Basit on his YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, Bumrah was phenomenal with the ball in the T20 World Cup 2024 for India. He picked 15 wickets at an economy rate of 4.17 and he became the first player to win the Player of the Tournament Award without scoring a run comprising both men and women editions. He joined the ranks of other two pacers to win POTM, Australia’s Glenn McGrath and Mitchell Starc. The duo won their respective awards in 2007 and 2015 World Cups.