India’s A-lister Jasprit Bumrah has earned a place among the best of all time on the back of his flamboyant performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series opener in Perth against Australia. With his scorching pace, Bumrah set the Perth strip on fire with his fiery spells, leaving the Australian batting unit rattled in the first innings. With his temperament, Bumrah set the tempo of the innings by making the ball obey his will. He consistently bowled in the corridor of intensity to wreak havoc and put India in a dominant position.
With his breathtaking spells, Bumrah pushed his name to feature among some of the best to grace the surface in the longest format of cricket.
In the list of bowlers who have a minimum of 150 Test wickets, Bumrah holds the second-highest bowling average.
With 178 Test wickets, Bumrah has a stunning average of 20.16, only bettered by England’s legendary right-arm fast Sydney Barnes’s bowling average of just 16.43, according to ESPNcricinfo. During his illustrious career, Barnes picked up 189 scalps in just 27 appearances.
The 30-year-old Indian quick bettered former Australian star Alan Davidson’s stunning Test bowling average of 20.53. During his career, Davidson scythed 186 scalps in 27 appearances for the Baggy Greens.
Bumrah’s magic in the first innings ended with figures of 5/30 in 18 overs. With another impressive outing, India’s “National Treasure” added another feather to his cap.
The stand-in Indian skipper was the mastermind behind Australia perishing on 104. Mohammed Siraj and debutant Harshit Rana turned out to be the ideal support as the trio gave no window of opportunity to turn the tides.
By using bounce on offer to his advantage, Bumrah forced out a thick edge from Alex Carey to get his 11th Test five-wicket haul on Day 2 of the opening Test. This was his seventh five-fer for Bumrah in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries.
With his recent exploits, Bumrah went level with legendary Kapil Dev for most Indian wickets picked by an Indian bowler in SENA countries.
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