Ricky Ponting praises Jasprit Bumrah for his remarkable 32-wicket haul

Former captain Ricky Ponting on Sunday lauded India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for his stupendous haul of 32 wickets in the five-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, saying he made the Australian top-order batters “look silly at different times”.

The 31-year-old Bumrah finished as the leading wicket-taker with an incredible tally though India lost the series 1-3 after the six-wicket defeat in the fifth Test at the SCG. He was named Player of the Series for his exploits.

During his iconic run, Bumrah also overtook former India captain Kapil Dev to hold the record for most Test wickets by an Indian in Australia — 64 scalps at 17.15 compared to Kapil’s 51 at 24.58.

Ponting, a legendary batter and ICC Hall of Famer, believes that Bumrah’s exploits are not only the best he’s seen of a visiting bowler in Australia, but probably the best fast-bowling display of all time.

“No doubt, it’s probably the best series of fast bowling I’ve ever seen. Yes, they had good conditions, the fast bowlers, for most of this series. But when you watched him (Bumrah) bowl compared to anyone else in the series, he made batting look so much harder,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the ICC website.

“There’s a lot of quality batting in that Australian top-order as well but he (Bumrah) made all of them at different times look silly,” he added.

Bumrah, who had captained India to a win in Perth in the first Test, didn’t bowl on the third and final day of the fifth match in Sydney after experiencing back spasms on Saturday.

Dejected on missing out in the second innings, Bumrah conceded post-match, “Little frustrating but sometimes you have to respect your body, you can’t fight your body.” “Disappointing, probably missed out on the spiciest wicket of the series. I felt a bit of discomfort during my second spell in the first innings.”