New Delhi [India]: Legendary Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis heaped praise on star India pacer Jasprit Bumrah for his bowling performances in the second Test against England, which also included a scorching yorker that dismantled England batter Ollie Pope’s middle and leg stumps.
Day two of the second Test between India and England saw many remarkable moments. Be it Yashasvi Jaiswal’s maiden double century, Zak Crawley’s brilliant counterattack after India posted a big total in the first innings or Bumrah’s six-wicket haul, the day had a lot of moments for cricket aficionados to savour.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he responded to a user’s question on if the ball delivered by Bumrah to Pope reminded him of anyone, Waqar replied, “Can’t think of anyone Hemant. Bumrah’s Magic.”
Bumrah became the fastest Indian speedster to pick 150+ wickets in long-format cricket. He reached the remarkable feat after delivering 6781 balls in Test cricket. Meanwhile, Umesh Yadav stands in the second spot with 7661 balls. Mohammed Shami and Kapil Dev hold the third and fourth place with 7755 and 8378 balls respectively.
Bumrah reached another milestone on Saturday. He took Kapil Dev’s place to dismiss the opposition’s third, fourth, fifth and sixth batters in an innings in a Test in India. Earlier, Kapil Dev made the record in 1983 against West Indies in Ahmedabad, where the former India skipper made a stunning spell of 9/83.
Among the bowlers with 150 Test wickets, he has the second-best bowling average at 20.28, next to Syd Barnes of England (16.43).
On the other hand, with 789 international wickets, Waqar is one of the greatest pacers to come out of Pakistan and in international cricket as a whole. With 375 international wickets in just 185 appearances, Bumrah is also match-by-match making his way upto the list of cricket’s all-time great pacers.
Coming to the match, India ended the day two of the match at 28/0, with skipper Rohit Sharma (13*) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (15*) unbeaten. Now on day three, they are inching towards a 400-run lead thanks to a century by Shubman Gill.
Led by Bumrah’s heroics, India had earlier bundled out England for just 253 in their first innings, gaining a 143-run lead. Zak Crawley (76 in 78 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes) did launch an impressive counterattack, but Bumrah along with spinner Kuldeep Yadav (3/71) blew away the rest of the English line-up.
India reached a respectable total of 396 runs in their first innings mainly due to the maiden double-hundred of the young Yashasvi Jaiswal (209 in 290 balls, with 19 fours and seven sixes). Knocks from Shubman Gill (34), Rajat Patidar (32), Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel (27 each) provided some help to the left-handed batter.
