'They are a complementing pair' - Zaheer Khan bets on Bumrah-Harshal death bowling duo

The Indian T20I side is currently riding high on the back of a ten-match winning streak with the latest of their wins coming in a comprehensive outing against Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Under new skipper Rohit Sharma, the team appears to be well on track in their build-up to the T20 World Cup at the end of this year. Though India is still trying to find an adequate balance in terms of their batting line-up, their bowling set-up is gradually forming into being a very potent one.

The match against Sri Lanka has reiterated the depth in India’s bowling attack. India played the game with Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel as their seam attack. While the likes of Bumrah have already proven their mettle, Patel once again showcased his potential bowling at the death.

Commenting on the same, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan has reserved special praise for the pair, stating Bumrah and Patel can prove to be formidable bowling together at the death. While appreciating Bumrah for his ability to bowl the fast yorkers, Zaheer praised Patel for his wicket-taking ability and the variations he possesses.

“Bumrah and Harshal will be a complementing pair… purely because when you talk about Bumrah, you talk about that awkward angle and fast yorkers. To add to that, he’s got that beautiful variation of bowling slower ones. When you look at Harshal, his success story has been around people looking to attack. When batters are coming hard at him, he feels more comfortable and chances of him taking a wicket are on the higher side,” Zaheer told Cricbuzz.

To have some like Bumrah around will work in Harshal’s favour: Zaheer Khan

The former left-arm pacer also feels Burmah could play the perfect foil for Patel as the batters are more likely to play safe against the senior bowler and thus, taking more chances against Patel. Zaheer believes the 31-year-old’s variations and change in pace gives him an edge bowling in the business end of an innings.

“It will work in his favour when he has someone like Bumrah bowling from the other end. Batters would want to take more chances against Harshal than against Bumrah and it would work in Harshal’s favour. Bumrah is gonna make it very difficult for batters to score runs freely and that’s gonna give an edge to Harshal to use his variations. I think this pair at the death overs will complement each other,” he added.

India won the first of the three T20Is against Sri Lanka by a comfortable margin of 62 runs. While Bumrah ended his three overs with an economy of just around 6, Patel was miserly in his two overs, conceding just 10 runs. The two teams now travel to Dharamsala for the second T20I.