With six wickets for 37 runs in his last two matches for Mumbai Indians, Jasprit Bumrah has been one of the pillars for the Mumbai side in their revival post first xx losses in the IPL this season. While the 31-year-old pacer was away from the game for more than four months after an injury in January this year, the Indian pacer made a return to IPL last month. With Bumrah dominating the Test as well ODI and T20Is format in international cricket, former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist has compared the Indian pacer with Australian and world cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman and terming the Indian as the best bowler of all time.
“He’s maybe the best bowler, fast bowler of all time. When you start stacking up the statistics and the varying conditions that he has to go out and execute those skills in, I guess you look at Sir Donald Bradman’s numbers compared to his peers and he’s just so far ahead, so I think is sort of in that category across all the different variations that you get in conditions and pitches that you’ve got to bowl on. He’s significantly further ahead than the peers around him, so that tells you we are truly watching greatness,” Gilchrist told Cricbuzz on Thursday.
Bumrah had taken two wickets in ’ 100-run win over at Jaipur on Thursday. It meant that the Indian pacer now has a total of 176 wickets in 140 matches in his career so far and is currently placed seventh on the all-time leading wicket-takers in IPL. Earlier this year, the pacer took 32 wickets in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy before he was injured during the Sydney Test. In 2024, Bumrah had claimed 86 wickets across formats with an average of 13.76 in 21 matches. Bumrah had missed the first four matches in IPL this season apart from Champions Trophy earlier this year due to the injury. When asked whether the Australians were intimidated and afraid of any other Indian bowler like they were against Bumrah in the five-test series, Gilchrist said in negative.
“A seamer from India, consistently throughout, particularly the series that we just saw in the summer, back home in the Australian summer, no, I don’t think so. We just sat and watched in awe at close range commentating on that series and again, I know it’s a different format, but he is the best all-format bowler; that’s nothing to argue there,” added Gilchrist.
