Jasprit Bumrah shouldn’t run after county cricket, he needs to relax: Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram, the former Pakistan fast bowler, said that Jasprit Bumrah can’t afford to tire himself, being India’s gun bowler across formats. Akram, who ended with over 900 wickets for Pakistan, asked the speedster to relax rather than running after county cricket. Earlier this year, Bumrah returned to cricket in the Sri Lanka T20Is after his lower-back injury.

However, he has strained somewhat and also lost his number one ODI ranking to New Zealand’s Trent Boult. The 53-year-old Akram was of the opinion that the youngsters can only polish their skills by playing first-class cricket.

“Cricket has become too much today. A guy like Bumrah being a top bowler, India no 1, I would have suggested him to relax and not run after county cricket. Young players need to play more first-class cricket, from there they will learn bowling,” Akram was quoted as saying in Aakash Chopra’s official YouTube channel.

I don’t judge a player by T20 performance: Wasim Akram

The boom of T20 cricket since the early 2000s have added to the entertainment quotient of cricket. Most of the countries have also come up with their own domestic T20 leagues. Wasim said that bowlers can’t learn from playing in the shortest format. For Wasim, a calibre of a bowler can be comprehended from performances in first-class cricket.

“T20 is amazing, good entertainment; there’s plenty of money involved and I’m all in for the importance of money in a sport and the players. They won’t learn bowling from T20. I don’t judge a player by T20 performance, I judge them from their performances in the longer version of cricket,” the legendary bowled added.

Wasim also went down the memory lane to the time when he broke into the Pakistan team back in 1984. Back then, he had no clue about his talent and got know about his potential from the likes of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar. While he was happy with the tag of ‘talented’, he also learnt that ‘nothing comes easy’.

“Nothing comes easy was one advice which I learnt from all these three players all though their ways were different. As a bowler, our job is to create doubts in the minds of the batsmen. I enjoyed the tag that I am talented,” he added.