Jasprit Bumrah has bowled exceptionally well in the last two matches to drive India’s campaign in the ongoing T20 World Cup but the team’s next opponents, New Zealand, are refusing to hype him up ahead of the tournament decider at Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The fast bowler removed Shimron Hetmyer against Roston Chase in one over against the West Indies in what was a virtual knockout. Then on Thursday against England in the semifinal in what was a high-scoring contest, he removed the dangerous English captain Harry Brook before bowling decisive, stingy overs towards the end to leave the 2022 edition winners seven runs short of the target.
Be that it as may, New Zealand’s explosive batsman Glenn Phillips is not overawed at the prospect of facing Bumrah. “He’s human as well. He is allowed to have a bad day, as are the rest of us. So hopefully we have a good day against him,” Phillips said ahead of the game.
“Obviously we had a really good trip against him in the bilateral series as well but he’s a class bowler.”He’s got so many variations. He hits the block hole at the death incredibly well.”
New Zealand are not going to be overly defensive against Bumrah!
Often teams play Bumrah defensively, hoping not to give him wickets and attacking other Indian bowlers in the Playing XI. England’s Jacob Bethell and Sam Curran kind of adopted the same approach against the fast bowler but that cost them dear. The last two overs of Bumrah just cost 14 runs and the English team went on to lose the match by a small margin. Imagine if they had a got a couple of boundaries in those two overs!
It’s not that Bumrah didn’t bowl dispatchable deliveries in those two overs but they, out of respect for Bumrah or fear maybe, were were not willing to attack him. Phillips has made it clear they are not going to do that.
“It’s [defensive approach against Bumrah] not necessarily going to be that, per se. As I said, a bowler is allowed to miss, and if he happens to miss, we do have to put it away. That also means that if he does bowl, well, we have to accommodate for other things and adapt,” he said.
