India vs Australia: Jasprit Bumrah on the cusp of toppling Rashid Khan as best ‘death bowler’

He is known as one of the best bowlers in the death overs and India pacer Jasprit Bumrah is now just 5 wickets away from toppling Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan as the bowler with most wickets in the death overs (16-20). While leg-spinner Rashid has 33 wickets to his name (in all T20Is starting from 2013), Bumrah sits third on the list with 29 wickets in his kitty. Second in the list is Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga with 31 wickets.

Australian pacer Pat Cummins has also praised the Indian pacer saying that Bumrah’s pace and accuracy has made him a serious threat in all three formats. Bumrah almost brought India back into the game in the opening T20I by taking two wickets in the 19th over.

“He is obviously a class act. Two of the basics he does really well is that he bowls fast and he bowls accurately. Anyone who does that in world cricket will pose a real challenge for the batsmen. He has got a great slower ball, seems to have a great cricketing brain, executes his skills really well,” Cummins said.

“He has done really well in all three formats and the one to watch out for.”

Bumrah became the second Indian bowler to pick up 50 wickets in T20I cricket when he returned with figures of 3/16 in the first T20I against Australia in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. The fast bowler has taken 51 wickets in his T20I career. Bumrah, who took 41 matches to reach the feat, is the joint third fastest to achieve it along with Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir. However, the speedster is just two wickets away from going past India’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is - Ravichandran Ashwin. The off-spinner has taken 52 wickets in 46 T20I matches.

Australia won the first T20I by three wickets. The two teams will meet for the final T20I of the series in Bengaluru on Wednesday.