Skill wise, Mohammed Siraj is even ahead of Jasprit Bumrah: Ashish Nehra

Indian cricketer Jasprit Bumrah has been one of the biggest gifts for Indian cricket in the past few years. Known for his impeccable discipline and control, he has climbed the ladder of success quickly after showing his potential in the Indian Premier League and that has translated well into his international career as well, where he has represented the nation in all three formats of the game.

The India quick has turned out to become one of the best bowlers in the world, becoming the fastest pacer from the country to pick 50 Test wickets and the third Indian bowler after Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan to claim a Test hat-trick.

Having played 19 Tests, 67 ODIs, and 49 T20Is, Bumrah has named 250 international wickets to himself, while in 97 IPL games, he has bagged 113 scalps. While most cricket experts feel that there is hardly any match of Bumrah’s talent at the international level currently in India, the former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra feels there is another India pacer, who not only is on par with Bumrah skill-wise, but is even better than him.

He is not behind Jasprit Bumrah: Ashish Nehra

Speaking to Cricbuzz, Nehra went onto appraise Mohammed Siraj, whose stocks have risen rapidly in the IPL, and he too has made his international debut in all three formats for the country.

“When you talk about skill, this has been my thinking in the last three to four years. When it comes to bowlers, everyone talks about Jasprit Bumrah being right up there. But skill-wise, I don’t think Mohammed Siraj is behind Bumrah, and in all formats,” Nehra said.

“There was talk about a couple of years ago that he used to pick up 5-6 wickets in every match for India A with the red ball, and I’ve always believed that a good red-ball bowler, a Test match bowler has a greater chance of succeeding as a white-ball bowler,” he added.

“There are some bowlers whom you include only for T20s, for white-ball matches. So I think Siraj is a very good all-format bowler. There is no shortage of skill, he has all types of variations. I would say that skill-wise, he is even ahead of Bumrah, if you talk of variations.”

Urging Siraj to maintain his fitness and improve game awareness, Nehra said “He has a different slower one, there is no lack of speed, he can move the new ball. He needs to keep his fitness and sharpen his mind. If he can do these two things well, the sky is the limit,” he concluded.

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