Jasprit Bumrah has taken huge strides in his Test career: Laxmipathy Balaji

Former Indian cricketer Laxmipathy Balaji reckoned that Jasprit Bumrah has a bright future in the offing as far as Test cricket is concerned. In 24 Tests, Bumrah has already picked up 101 wickets with six five-wicket hauls to show for his efforts.

Recently, he also became India’s leading wicket-taker in the Test series against England with 18 scalps from four matches. In the series, Bumrah was the second-highest wicket-taker, overall, after England’s Ollie Robinson.

Balaji said that the fast bowler has managed his workload across formats in an efficient manner. The veteran also stated that the 27-year-old will have a more critical role to play in the purest format in the upcoming years.

Moreover, Balaji hailed Bumrah as a ‘once-in-a-generation’ cricketer and said that Bumrah is among the rare breed of bowlers, who have polished their skills as their career progressed.

Balaji lauds Jasprit Bumrah

“Bumrah has taken huge strides in his Test career. He will play a bigger role in the future. The way he has managed both white ball and red ball has been phenomenal to watch. Both the skills are totally different. Very rarely, you get a match of both the red-ball cricket and white-ball cricket bowling in superior form,” Balaji said to India Today.

“We have seen many batsmen doing it, but very rarely do we see bowlers evolving with both the skills. Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation fast bowler. It’s not easy to replicate Bumrah. This generation, we are lucky to see talents like Bumrah and (Mohammed) Shami,” he stated.

Back in 2019, Bumrah also became the third Indian bowler after Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan to get a hat-trick in Test cricket. Balaji applauded Bumrah for shouldering a lot of responsibility from a young age.

“Bumrah is one exceptional bowler. I see him not only as a skilful bowler, but he has leadership quality. He has been shouldering responsibility very well at a very young age. The way he has handled the responsibility of the team has been phenomenal,” Balaji added.

Bumrah is now set to take part in the second leg of the 2021 IPL, scheduled to start on September 19 in the UAE. The pacer is likely to be seen in action on the very first day during the game between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in Dubai.