South Africa legend Dale Steyn praised Jasprit Bumrah for taking the pitch out of the equation and claiming wickets at will on flat Indian tracks as well. A terrific pace bowler, Steyn was himself among the few pacers who found success in India as well. And, Bumrah has been in sublime form across formats since his return from injury last year. In the ongoing England Test series, Bumrah picked up 15 wickets at an average of 10.66 in two games.

Speaking to the media on the eve of the SA20 final, Steyn said, “All round he’s a fantastic bowler. And it’s no surprise with his skiddy kind of action that he’s got that. He takes wickets on those docile pitches, so he’s fantastic. I don’t think there’s any Test bowlers right now who are able to run in and bowl essentially wicket-taking yorkers. To take wickets in Test matches, there are probably a handful of guys who could do that. Trent Boult was one of that, Mitchell Starc maybe. And obviously, Bumrah. I remember saying ages back that a good yorker bowled in India or South Africa or Australia remains a good yorker because you take the surface out of it, doesn’t matter where you bowled it. You take the pitch away and I think that’s one thing that he’s done really well.”

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However, after scalping six wickets in India’s defeat in the series opener against England, Jasprit Bumrah produced a Player of the Match performance in the second Test as well. He also picked up nine wickets, including a six-wicket haul in the first innings to help Team India level the series as well.

“Being an Indian player, there’s going to be a lot of workload. There’s a lot of cricket that India plays, they’re one of the highly-sought after teams in the world. It seems like India don’t really miss him because the step-in bowlers are up to the standard, and it’s a great credit to the Indian cricket. I think good Test bowlers make good T20 bowlers. They have good skill in terms of like when to use a change of pace, when to use this slow ball, when to use their bouncer. I’m hoping that a lot of bowlers will get caught on to that and realise that the more red ball cricket that they play, the better shorter format bowlers they will become,” concluded Dale Steyn.