Published: Jun 17, 2025, 04:32 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 17, 2025, 04:38 PM (IST)
Former fast bowling legend Stuart Broad believes Jasprit Bumrah will be the key player to watch in the upcoming high-profile Test series against England, praising the Indian pace ace for his deceptive bowling and superb balance during his delivery stride.
Broad compared Bumrah with the legendary Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath in having the “most balanced delivery stride” in world cricket
“He (Bumrah) jogs in, you will be thinking ‘this will be 70 miles an hour’ and it hits you at 90 and you don’t get a real flow. When I faced Shoaib Akhtar, he sprint in at a hundred miles an hour and delivered at a hundred miles an hour,” Broad said in the podcast ‘For the Love of Cricket’ which also featured England batter Jos Buttler.
“You were ready, but Bumrah is so balanced, in his run-up, it’s a short-stride pattern, so he never gets over stride and of balance. I look at Glenn McGrath (who) had the most balanced delivery stride that I watched and Bumrah is the same.”
The chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed that Bumrah won’t play all the five-test matches. Broad who retired from Tests in 2023 said, Bumarh will take a “shedload of wickets” if he plays in all the five matches of the series starting in Leeds o Friday.
“He is going to be certainly one to watch and certainly someone that England won’t want to play five Tests, because if he does, he’s going to pick up a shedload of wickets, isn’t he?. There was that great bit of play in Australia wherein he got in a scrap in the last over with (Sam) Konstas and (Usman) Khawaja was on strike. He nicked Khawaja off, got him out. He was screaming and roaring.” Broad said
“He has definitely got that; every fast bowler has to have that emotion in him, but there is a real sharpness to his competitive spirit (and) that he has grown up in that (Virat) Kohli (captaincy) era.”
