Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan has stated that he believes Jasprit Bumrah is the most important member of the Indian team. In an interview with IANS, the former Indian speedster stated that the Indian cricket team is blessed to have Bumrah and his absence will be a huge loss for the national squad. He added that Bumrah will be successful in all three formats.
"I really believe that he is the most important cricketer in the team. When Bumrah is not playing for India, it's a bigger loss than anybody else. He is such an important part of the team. Indian cricket is blessed to have a guy like him," the former bowling all-rounder told IANS.
"India needs to look after him. He is kind of bowler who can be successful in all three formats of the game," he added.
The 34-year-old, who was the last Indian to take a hat-trick before Jasprit Bumrah, also said that the latter will pick up more hat-tricks in the coming days.
Pathan was a part of the 2007 ICC World T20-winning squad and has 301 wickets across all the formats. He is currently the mentor and coach of the Jammu and Kashmir cricket team.
Bumrah has been in scintillating form and, in the recently concluded Test series against the West Indies, picked up 13 wickets in the two Tests, finishing with an average of 9.23.
In the first innings of the second Test match, he delivered one of the most brutal spells by an Indian bowler in recent times picking up six wickets for 27 runs, which includes a hat-trick. He is the third Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Tests.
The Indian pacer has been in tremendous form in all the three formats in the last few years, even in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 he turned out to be a major threat for the opponents. The Men in Blue completed three whitewashes in the Caribbean as they defeated the West Indies team 3-0 and 2-0 in the T20 and ODI series respectively before doing the same in the Test series.
India are currently on the top of the ICC World Test Championship table with 120 points. They are slated to face South Africa for a three-match T20 and Test series respectively which will start on September 15 at the HPCA stadium in Dharamshala. This series is likely to be a much bigger Test than the tour of West Indies.
