In-form Australian pacer Pat Cummins on Tuesday could nothelp but praise another fast bowler on the top of his game — Jasprit Bumrah,saying the Indian’s pace and accuracy has made him a serious threat in allthree formats.
Cummins has been Australia’s standout fast bowler over thelast 12 months and has even made some useful contributions with the bat,including in the first T20 against India in Vizag on Sunday, when he got acrucial four and a double on the final two balls to pull off a three wicket winfor his team.
Bumrah, on the other hand, brought back India into the gameby taking two wickets in the 19th over in which he conceded just two runs.
In his comeback game, he showed how invaluable he has becomefor India in all three formats.
“He is obviously a class act. Two of the basics he doesreally well is that he bowls fast and he bowls accurately.
“Anyone who does that in world cricket will pose a realchallenge for the batsmen. He has got a great slower ball, seems to have agreat cricketing brain, executes his skills really well,” Cummins said.
“He has done really well in all three formats and theone to watch out for,” added the Aussie speedster ahead of the second andfinal T20 here Wednesday.
The 25-year-old from Sydney himself has become invaluablefor his team after maintaining his fitness over the past two seasons. He didwell in the home Test series against India though the hosts lost before blowingaway Sri Lanka.
“I haven’t seen too many memes (of myself on socialmedia) but really happy with how my game is going at the moment. So many thingshave fallen into place. Playing quite consistent cricket has helped,”Cummins said.
“I have not played too much white ball cricket, solooking forward to more of it. It is a bigger challenge with the ball notswinging as much as the red ball.”
He has also been involved with some tense finishes includingthe one in the last game. Though he doesn’t consider himself as a properbatsman yet, Cummins relishes the challenge of closing out games.
“I am pretty happy batting down at 8 or 9. I think myrole in the team is just to survive and bat extra time. Hopefully, I have got abatsman at the other end who can really cash in, especially in Tests.
“I might have big shots like a lot of other batsmen,and I have really enjoyed it,” he said. “Anyway, you can’t justprepare for a game as a bowler, you got to prepare for everything.”