Lasith Malinga is the best exponent of the yorker: Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian fast bowler, has named Lasith Malinga as the best exponent of the yorkers in international cricket. Both Bumrah and Malinga have played quite a few seasons together for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Bumrah is himself known for bowling the toe-crushers which is why he is deemed as one of the best bowlers in the death overs. In fact, Bumrah has credited Malinga for teaching him the art of nailing the yorkers with sheer precision.

Malinga is the only bowler, who has taken wickets of four consecutive balls in international cricket two times- once in 2007 against South Africa and the other in 2019 versus New Zealand.

Jasprit Bumrah lauds his MI teammate

“Malinga is the best yorker bowler in the world and has used it for such a long period of time to the best of his advantage,” Bumrah was quoted as saying as per a tweet by MI, reported by Cricket Next. Even as Malinga is at the fag end of his career, Bumrah has a long distance to travel.

Earlier, Bumrah also spoke about the possible changes that could impact the world of cricket going forward. Recently, there has been a lot of debate over whether saliva should be used to shine the cricket leather or not.

Recently, the International Cricket Council (ICC) wrote in its guidelines that saliva would be banned. It’s due to how contagious the COVID-19 has been. Bumrah sounded a tad concerned about it. He said that there should be alternatives in order to make things easier for the pacers.

“I was not much of a hugger anyway! And not a high-five person as well, so that doesn’t trouble me a lot. The only thing that interests me is the saliva bit,” Bumrah had told to Shaun Pollock and Ian Bishop on the ICC’s video series Inside Out interviews.

“The grounds are getting shorter and shorter; the wickets are becoming flatter and flatter. So, we need something, some alternative for the bowlers to maintain the ball so that it can do something — maybe reverse in the end or conventional swing,” he added.