January 8, 2025
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Michael Clarke lauds Jasprit Bumrah as best ever all-format quick

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Michael Clarke lauds Jasprit Bumrah as best ever all-format quick

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has termed Jasprit Bumrah the best all-format quick bowler, ever after his Player-of-the-Series performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Bumrah took 32 wickets at 13.06 before pulling up injured midway through Australia’s first innings at the SCG in the final Test. India’s other quicks were able to secure a four-run lead, but in Bumrah’s absence, Australia chased down 162 on the third day to win the series 3-1.

It meant Bumrah finished two short of equaling Sydney Barnes’ 1911-12 record of 34 wickets in a series by a touring pace bowler to Australia.

“The thing I’ve thought about Bumrah, after the series finished and I was sitting and thinking about his performances, I actually think he’s the best fast bowler ever across all three formats,” Clarke told ESPN’s Around The Wicket.

“I know a lot of great fast bowlers, Curtly Ambrose, Glenn McGrath, didn’t get to play T20 cricket, so I’m not talking about those guys, but in regards to anyone who has played all three formats, I think he might be the best ever. He’s actually that good in any conditions, that’s what makes him great; any conditions, any format, this guy’s a freak.”

Bumrah blew Australia away in Perth with eight wickets, claimed a six-wicket haul in the first innings at the Gabba, and almost turned the MCG Test on its head with his burst on the fourth afternoon. He then removed Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne early in Australia’s first innings at the SCG – the former following a confrontation with Sam Konstas – but could only manage one over after lunch on the second day when the game was in the balance.

“I reckon India were probably 20 runs short [in Sydney],” Clarke said. “I reckon a 180 lead, with Bumrah in the team, I think India are home. I think Bumrah is that good… he’s so much better than the other bowlers they had in the team.”

Mohammed Siraj was the next highest wicket-taker among India’s quicks with 20 at 31.15, while Prasidh Krishna’s six wickets in Sydney suggested he might have been worth a run earlier in the series. However, Australia managed totals over 400 in both Brisbane and Melbourne, the latter with a short turnaround into Sydney, and Aaron Finch believed their tactics eventually paid dividends.

“Australia were prepared to play the long game with Jasprit Bumrah,” Finch told Around The Wicket. “They wanted to make him bowl over and over and over, make him come back for one more spell, bowl another three, four, five [more] overs and in the end, it worked, they broke him in the end. They played that long game, they won.

“Had he bowled in the last innings in Sydney, would Australia have got over the line? Think they still just get over the line, but it would have been a lot more difficult than it was.”

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