Jasprit Bumrah or Jofra Archer? Chris Gayle picks the one pacer he wouldn't want to play against

Former West Indies legend Chris Gayle has admitted that he wouldn't want to face Jasprit Bumrah if he was still an active player in the International circuit. 

Chris Gayle, who is one of the ambassadors of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, made this claim just a day before the finale at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. Jasprit Bumrah, the frontline pacer of the Indian team, is all set to feature in his maiden T20 WC final later today. It will be Bumrah's 3rd straight ICC finale across formats. 

Can Bumrah end his wait for a title with the Indian team? 

Last year, Jasprit Bumrah played a crucial role in India's journey to the World Test Championship at Oval and Cricket World Cup final in Gujarat. On both occasions, Bumrah and the Indian team would lose to Pat Cummins-led Australian team, which got knocked out of this T20 WC from the Super 8s after losing to the 2007 Champions. 

After missing out on two major silverware last year, Jasprit Bumrah and team India have their sights set on winning the tournament after 17 years. The Men in Blue will be taking a go at lifting their first major title since the 2013 Champions Trophy. The Indians, under MS Dhoni's captaincy, had defeated England in the final which could not be a 50-over game. 

Since then, India have been runner-ups and semi-finalists at ICC events and it will be interesting to see what happens this time. One thing is assured if the Indians want to become World Champions after 13 years, then a lot will depend on the performances of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah among others. 

While Virat and Rohit will be expected to get India off to a flying start, Jasprit Bumrah will be expected to be among the key wicket-takers. In the Semi-final against England 2 days ago, Bumrah took the wicket of the dangerous Phil Salt for 5 runs with a deceiving off-cutter and scalped Jofra Archer who was doing some hitting towards the end.

Later today, Bumrah has to make sure he tackles the challenge against Reeza Hendricks, Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram, and Tristan Stubbs. And ahead of the final, 2-time T20 World Cup winner, Chris Gayle might have labeled Bumrah as the most deceiving and dangerous bowler in the world. 

What did Chris Gayle say about Jasprit Bumrah?

While speaking to an Indian Journalist recently, Chris Gayle claimed that Jasprit Bumrah is much more superior than Jofra Archer for several reasons. Gayle reasoned that Bumrah's deceptive bowling and deceiving slower one were very lethal and gave him a slight edge. 

Chris Gayle was asked to choose from Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer as the one bowler he would like to avoid. Gayle said that he would like to face Archer, who has a lot of pace in him but admitted that Bumrah is just too good.

"Bumrah. His action is deceiving. His slower ball is deceiving as well and he is very deceptive as well. Jofra Archer is deceptive as well has a good pace but his action is always going to get the better of Archer."- Chris Gayle said.