'Was naive going into him' - Nathan McSweeney hails Jasprit Bumrah

Nathan McSweeney looked in all sorts of trouble during his international debut, facing up to the lethal Jasprit Bumrah, in the Border-Gavaskar series 2024-25. The right-handed batter opened for the Aussies in the first three games and managed only 72 runs at an average of 14.40 before being dropped for the remainder of the series. He was dismissed four times by Bumrah in six innings.

McSweeney described Bumrah as an incredible bowler and said that he has great skill and consistent ability to keep troubling batters by pitching the ball in areas where they do not like.

“Yeah, tough work is probably an understatement. He’s an incredible bowler. I was probably naive going into it, never faced him before and (thinking) he’ll be fine. But he’s an incredible bowler that has a great skill but just relentless ability to pitch the ball in the area where you don’t want as a batter,” McSweeney said on the Willow Talk Podcast.

McSweeney said it was a stern challenge against Bumrah but it also gave him some hope as none of the Australian batters during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had great success against India's Test vice-captain.

“So, it was a very tough challenge but also gave me a hope that no one kind of had great success against him and everyone was trying to tackle him at the same time and no one was playing him with ease, which gave me a little bit of confidence,” he added.

Jasprit Bumrah set for return during IPL 2025

Bumrah suffered a back injury in the final Test against Australia in Sydney and has been out of action since then. However, if reports are to be believed, the right-arm seamer is making steady progress and will be available to play for the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025 albeit after missing the first few games.

Also Read: IPL 2025: Aakash Chopra picks Mumbai Indians' probable playing XI

Mumbai will begin their campaign with an away trip to face arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, March 23.