Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond believes Jasprit Bumrah can carry his form to Champions Trophy

Former New Zealand pacer and Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond feels that Jasprit Bumrah will successfully carry his form to the Champions Trophy. Bumrah, who bowled an exceptional spell on the night of the final against the Rising Pune Supergiant, will next feature in the Indian team during the upcoming Champions Trophy in the UK.

Although Bumrah bagged a total of 20 wickets from his 16 games in this edition of the IPL, the pacer was a much more valuable bowler for MI than his figures otherwise revealed. He has evolved into one of India’s finest death bowlers, and he’s shown his control with different variants of the yorker. Bumrah even won a thrilling Super Over for the Mumbai Indians this season.

After returning to Mumbai with a third IPL title, Shane Bond said, “Bumrah has the skills to succeed everywhere. He can carry this form to England and if he does he will be successful. He makes me look good when he is bowling well. He was always put under pressure with bowling the tough overs and he did so well. When we looked at our attack we tried to balance our bowling. Malinga would otherwise naturally bowl at the death and we had Harbhajan. We than had to tweak and base our bowling around Bumrah.”

Bumrah over Malinga and Johnson feels Shane Bond

Bond also concurred that in an attack that consisted of greats such as Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson, young Bumrah shaped up as the spearhead. In particular, he overshadowed Malinga, arguably the greatest exponent of the yorker, under whose tutelage Bumrah himself developed the skill of bowling the toe-crushers.

“We tried to use Malinga as a defensive bowler in the middle and use the leg-spinner (Karn Sharma) as an attacking option. When you are starting to base your attack around a bowler like Jasprit that shows about his quality,” Bond quipped.

This edition of the IPL, in particular, has been a revelation for Indian cricket. The BCCI will henceforth keep an eye out for the likes of Jaydev Unadkat, Basil Thampi, Mohammed Siraj and Siddarth Kaul. Meanwhile, the big boys who have already cemented their spot in the Indian team, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar further impressed selectors with some brilliant spells in this edition of the IPL.

Bond however restrained from making too many comments on Bumrah and said, “I prefer not to say stuff like he is the best T20 bowler. Such things would add pressure on him. He knows he is doing a great job. He knows his capabilities.”

A Test cap soon for Bumrah

“We saw him with the super over against specialist like Mccullum and Finch where he defended 11 runs. He has all the capabilities to be a No. 1 bowler,” was captain Rohit Sharma’s assessment of Bumrah,” Shane Bond added.

Although being a regular feature in India’s limited-overs teams, the 23-year-old is yet to receive a Test call-up. Given the way he’s performed over the years, Bond believes a Test call up is round the corner for Bumrah.

“I have said this before that he will play Test cricket and be a world class bowler across all formats,” he predicted.