"Jasprit Bumrah alongwith.."- Steve Harmison lists his 2 best bowlers in World Cricket

Former England international pacer Steve Harmison while speaking to the Telegraph on the eve of day 1 of the 2nd Test between India and England at the ACA-VDCA stadium in Vizag, hailed senior Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah for being the world’s most lethal and best multi-format bowler along with South African speedster Kagiso Rabada.

Steve Harmsion who is currently covering the India-England 5-match Test series for Talksport, observed that there are a lot of factors that make Jasprit Bumrah very successful in international cricket. Harmison likened Bumrah to James Anderson for being the type of bowler whose performance is not determined by the conditions on offer.

Indeed Bumrah can pick wickets on any surface of the world, something that Ravi Shastri also mentioned while commentating during the 1st Test in Hyderabad. Shastri was explaining the right-arm pacer’s greatness and was praising his ability to pick wickets in tough situations.

Right after Shastri was done making his point, Jasprit Bumrah would register back-to-back wickets of Ben Duckett and Joe Root through a reverse swing spell to give India a breakthrough during the 3rd innings before Ollie Pope played out a sensational 196-run knock. 

Bumrah’s effort ensured that England did not score many runs at the start of their innings before eventually posting 211 as the target. Steve Harmison was praiseful about him for this particular reason only and also hailed him for creating enough pressure to pick wickets.  

“For me, Bumrah, along with Rabada, are probably the two best multi-format bowlers in world cricket today, though Rabada is probably of the classical mold. Like Jimmy Anderson, Bumrah can find a way to be effective on any surface, create pressure, and take wickets.” – Harmison said. 

The 45-year-old further stated that batters face a lot of difficulty in facing him due to his extraordinary skills with the ball in terms of bowling the slower one, the yorker very and efficiently bowling the in and out swinging deliveries.

“His skill level is very, very high. Yes, in terms of his actions, he has got one which, I think, still takes a while to get used to even if you have faced him many, many times. He has the ability to bowl the slower, the yorker, that too at a good pace, while he can get a good bounce too and can swing the ball both ways.” – Harmison added. 

“Jasprit Bumrah Has Gone To The Next Level”, Steve Harmison Rallies Praise On Pacer

Steve Harmison who retired from Test cricket after scalping 226 wickets for England, told everyone about the story of James Anderson on how he evolved himself with time by successfully bringing in variations to his bowling but most importantly adapting to different situations and Harmison feels that Jasprit Bumrah has taken a very similar route.

“When he was 27-28 (years old), he realized how to set a batter up, how to work out what was effective going into each spell making sure he could nail his skills at that point to get that wicket.”

“And Bumrah, I think, over the course of the last three-four years, with his experience is learning what’s the right ball to bowl at the right time to be effective. That’s why Bumrah has gone to the next level.” – Steve Harmison concluded.