Centurion, November 12
Arshdeep Singh commended India's A-lister Jaspreet Bumrah for "enormously" helping him to turn into a better pacer.
During India's successful unbeaten campaign in the T20 World Cup 2024, Bumrah and Arshdeep bowled in tandem and wreaked havoc from the group stage to the final.
Arshdeep has continued to grow from strength to strength and has established himself as one of India's leading pacers in the shortest format of cricket.
Arshdeep hailed Bumrah for creating pressure from the other end, allowing him to make the most out of the situation, which has led to his success.
"I have had a really good bowling partner in Jassi bhai (Jasprit Bumrah), and he has helped me enormously in taking a lot of wickets by creating pressure from the other end. So a lot of credit goes to him as well," Arshdeep said on the eve of the third T20I against South Africa.
In the absence of Bumrah in the ongoing four-match T20I series against South Africa, the left-armer has struggled to weave his magic.
He has managed just two scalps to his name while averaging 33.00. Notably, he has pushed for wickets in the first six overs of the match. In the series opener, he outclassed the South Africa skipper Aiden Markram, making early inroads.
In the second T20I, Arshdeep drew the first blood by putting in the slower variation to effective use to dismiss high-flying Ryan Rickelton.
With the third and fourth T20Is coming fast on the heels, the young gun is looking to adapt to the conditions and situations to be more effective.
"But the main thing is how well I can adapt to the conditions and the situations of the game, how I can attack the batsman early on and take some early wickets. And even at the death, how I can outsmart them and bring the game back into our hands," he noted.
With the series level on 1-1, Arshdeep will be keen to hit the right spots and send India in the lead once again.
Indian squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.
South African squad: Aiden Markram (c), Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Patrick Kruger, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton, Andile Simelane, Lutho Sipamla (3rd and 4th T20Is), Tristan Stubbs.