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Although the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) might not have gone India’s way this time, Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah ruled Australia with his brilliance with the ball. The 31-year-old pacer finished the BGT 2024-25 not only as the highest wicket-taker with 32 scalps, he was also awarded the Player of the Series award for his exceptional run.
The same was felt by several former cricketers, pundits as well as fans. Among many was former Australia cricketer and ICC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting, who went onto laud the Indian pacer as the “best-ever”. It is to be noted that Jasprit Bumrah overtook former India captain Kapil Dev to hold the record for most wickets by an Indian in Australia, averaging below 20.
Bumrah made Australian top-order look silly at times: Ricky Ponting
Speaking on The ICC Review on Sunday, former Australia cricketer opined that Bumrah made batting look difficult with his full-length deliveries and yorkers. "No doubt, it's probably the best series of fast bowling I've ever seen. Yes, they had good conditions, the fast bowlers, for most of this series. But when you watched him (Bumrah) bowl compared to anyone else in the series, he made batting look so much harder," Ponting was quoted as saying by the ICC website.
Furthermore, Ponting also mentioned how Bumrah made the Australian top order look silly at different times. "There's a lot of quality batting in that Australian top-order as well but he (Bumrah) made all of them at different times look silly," he added. Despite surpassing Kapil Dev in the tally of most wickets, Bumrah’s 64 wickets at an average of 17.15 also outshone Kapil Dev’s 51 wickets at an average of 24.58.
Notably, the Indian spearhead also surpassed Bishen Singh Bedi’s tally of 31 scalps to become India’s highest wicket-taker in a Test series in Australia. The pacer also matched Harbhajan Singh’s record of most wickets in an India-Australia series after the latter claimed 32 scalps in 2001.
