Jasprit Bumrah will have a massive impact on New Zealand Test series, feels Shane Bond

Jasprit Bumrah is one of India’s greatest bowlers in Test cricket in recent times. The skiddy pacer has played 12 matches in the long format since making debut two years ago and all of them have been on the foreign soil. He has taken 62 wickets in total in matches played in South Africa, England, Australia and the West Indies.

And now, the 26-year-old is set to play in yet another foreign territory and it is New Zealand. The bowler, who had a forgettable outing in the recent ODI series against the Kiwis with no wicket in three matches, is set to make a Test comeback after almost eight months in the first game in Wellington starting February 11.

India’s pace attack will be a strong one featuring the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma while Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini are on the reserve bench. Though his form post return from injury has left former greats like VVS Laxman concerned, yet former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has banked heavily on the Indian pacer, saying that he would have a big impact in the upcoming series.

“That’s the nature of expectations when you got a bowler of Jasprit’s quality. I thought New Zealand played him well and identified him as a risk. They have played him conservatively and obviously there was some inexperience around (Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur),” the 44-year-old who has 259 international wickets, said as quoted by IndiaToday.

“All teams will now identify him as a risk and attack others. So that’s where the bowling group and what they do (as a group) is massive. It is not an easy place to bowl as wickets are flat.”

‘Bumrah didn’t bowl badly in New Zealand ODIs’: Shane Bond

Bond said he did not feel Bumrah’s bowling was that bad during the ODI series in which India were thumped. He said one can only try, adding that the Indian seamer bowled reasonably well but failed somehow to pick wickets.

Bond then went on to predict Bumrah to have a ‘massive impact’ in the two-match Test series. “When you come back from a lay-off, it’s always hard to get into the groove. Just that he hadn’t had a lot of game before the series and conditions are a bit foreign,” Bond, who is the bowling coach of Mumbai Indians for which Bumrah also plays, said.

“Although New Zealand played him well in limited-overs, Jasprit will have a massive impact on the Test series. I have no doubt about that,” he said. Bumrah last played in a Test match in the West Indies in August-September last year in which he took a hat-trick.

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