New Delhi, Aug 3
Former India cricketer and coach Ravi Shastri picked Jasprit Bumrah as the standout bowler from the side's T20 World Cup triumph, adding that he was left in awe of fast-bowling spearhead's control and accuracy in the tournament.
In India's title-winning campaign in the USA and West Indies in June, Bumrah was awarded Player of the Tournament for picking 15 wickets at an economy rate of 4.17 and average of 8.26 in eight matches. He also bagged the ICC Men's Player of the Month award for June 2024.
"He just showed the world what it takes and you know, it's not often in your career when you have a ball in your hand and you say, do this and the ball does that. Very few have done it, I thought Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis) had it in their prime when they played white-ball cricket."
"Shane Warne had it where he could literally tell the ball, go there, pitch there, hit leg stump. People who are on top of the game have that ability. I think Bumrah had that in this World Cup," said Shastri on the ICC Review show.
Bumrah also found a mention in Shastri's favourite match of the tournament, which was India-Pakistan clash, with the last five overs of the title clash against South Africa finding a special mention too. In the Group A game at New York, India held its nerve to defend 119 against Pakistan, with Bumrah's dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan being the turning point of the match.
"I think India-Pakistan because India were made to fight there and realise what the right combination should be going forward in the tournament. That and then of course the final, those final five overs (from the T20 World Cup final)."
"I'd say one was Jasprit getting Mohammad Rizwan (was a favourite moment). Extremely crucial, because that could have tilted the balance of the game. And it happened on the first ball of a new spell."
"(At Barbados, he was) Brought back into the attack and then getting it to reverse and sneak through bat and pad (of Marco Jansen), I thought that was a very, very important wicket at that time. Hardik (Pandya) had done the main damage by taking Klaasen (in the previous over) but I thought back-to-back, that over and that wicket was extremely important," he elaborated.
Shastri also said Suryakumar Yadav's stunning boundary catch to dismiss David Miller was his 'catch of the tournament'. "I think that was a game changer because you know what David (Miller) can do. Another big shot (from Miller), and then, you know, the game's in the balance. So, I thought the timing couldn't have been better."
Shastri signed off by picking Rishabh Pant's wicketkeeping skills in his comeback to international cricket after a life-threatening car accident in December 2022 as the biggest surprise of the tournament.
"He did his job with the bat, but it was his keeping that really surprised everyone. For someone to recover that quickly and then move the way he did. He hardly missed anything, albeit he must have felt the pressure as the tournament got on because it's not easy to come back and do all the stuff he did."