‘ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year’ and India’s bowling icon Jasprit Bumrah is being hailed as one of the best fast bowlers to grace the game, but it’s surprising to hear him being compared to the late Bollywood icon Dilip Kumar in greatness.
To describe Jasprit Bumrah’s stature on Star Sports show ‘Deep Point’, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar shared an anecdote from his meeting with Bollywood super star Amir Khan.
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“I spent one evening with Amir Khan and we were talking about Dilip Kumar. So I asked him that ‘we don’t understand from the outside what is so great about Dilip Kumar’. Amir thought about it for a while and then eventually said, ‘He had no weakness’. That’s Bumrah for you,” said Manjrekar.
Besides winning the ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’ award for 2024, Bumrah was also named the ‘ICC Men’s Test Cricketer for the Year’, after his exceptional show during the five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
The right-arm pacer finished the series with an incredible 32 wickets at an average of 13.06 and strike rate of 28.37.
In the entire 2024, he took 71 wickets in just 13 Tests at an average of 14.92 and strike rate of 30.16.
Overall in Test cricket, Bumrah’s tally of wickets stands at 205 in 45 matches at an average of 19.40 and strike rate of 42.0.
Bumrah is currently recovering from a back injury that he suffered during the fifth Test on the tour of Australia, which leaves a doubt over his availability for the ICC Champions Trophy beginning February 19.