England Vs India 2018: India Blessed to Have Jasprit Bumrah - Mitchell McClenaghan

New Zealand fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan admitted that India is lucky to have Jasprit Bumrah in their ranks, who can swing the ball at a good pace.

Meanwhile, Bumrah is in line to feature in the third Test against England at Trent Bridge starting from August 18. Bumrah sustained the injury during the T20I against Ireland on 27th June. As a result, he missed the limited-overs encounters against England. The 24-year-old pacer underwent surgery in England, but it wasn’t a great success.

After missing the first Test, Jasprit Bumrah has now attained full fitness and will boost India’s confidence. Mitchell McClenaghan is confident that the young seamer will do well if he gets an opportunity.

“Having spent the last four years with Bumrah, watching him in the nets and seeing the skills he possesses, it was never a question of ‘if’ Jasprit would play Test cricket but a question of ‘how many?’. Bumrah is class, pure and simple,” McClenaghan said.

Jasprit Bumrah will have no transition issue

Mitchell McClenaghan is confident that Bumrah will do well if he consistently plays Test cricket. He also feels that the 24-year-old Bumrah will face no problem in shifting from one format to another.

“I don’t think there will be any issue with his transition to the longer format and knowing Bumrah well, he’ll be doing everything he can to consistently play Tests, he absolutely loves that format. The tricky part will be making a transition from white ball to red ball quickly as there is not a lot of gap between formats and the skills are generally quite different,” he added.

Jasprit Bumrah has played three Tests till date apart from 37 ODIs and 35 T20s for India. He did a good job in his debut series in South Africa.

Hardik Pandya can be scary: Mitchell McClenaghan

The 32-year-old has also played with Mumbai Indians’ teammate Hardik Pandya, who is India’s second-highest run-getter in the England series so far behind captain Virat Kohli.

But left-arm pacer feels Pandya is yet to unleash his true potential, and if he can, he can be really dangerous.

“Hardik has done really well for India to date and won some crucial matches by himself with bat and ball, which is what you expect from your No.1 all-rounder. Again, after spending quite a bit of time with Hardik and watching him train, I can’t help but feel that we haven’t seen half the talent he possesses at the international stage, which is really scary for opposing teams!” Mitchell McClenaghan concluded.