Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup.© AFP
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri stopped just short of calling Jasprit Bumrah a magician with the ball and said the pacer's standout moments in the T20 World Cup in the Americas were India managing to thwart Pakistan's charge in the group stage and Rohit Sharma's side pulling the rabbit out of the hat in the final against South Africa. India managed to defend a paltry 119 in their Group A clash against the arch-rivals, winning the contest by six runs with Bumrah changing the momentum of the game by getting rid of the dangerous Mohammad Rizwan to send Pakistan into a free fall when they were chugging along nicely at 80/3.
Bumrah then bowled a game-changing spell against the Proteas in the final at Barbados, conceding just four runs in the 16th over before getting rid of the dangerous power-hitter Marco Jansen to take the fight out of the rivals in the chase of 176.
"He (Bumrah) just showed the world what it takes...and you know, it's not often in your career when you have a ball in your hand and you say, 'do this and the ball does that'," Shastri said in the ICC Review.
"I think the India-Pakistan (match) because India were made to fight there and realise what the right combination should be going forward in the tournament. That and then of course the (T20 World Cup) final, those final five overs," said Shastri.
Rohit unleashed Bumrah in the death overs on the well-set Rizwan and the wicket shifted the momentum back to India.
"I'd say one was Jasprit (Bumrah) getting Mohammad Rizwan. Extremely crucial, because that could have tilted the balance of the game. And it happened on the first ball of a new spell," he added.
Shastri said his other favourite moment was Bumrah sending back Jansen.
"Brought back into the attack and then getting it to reverse and sneak through bat and pad (of Marco Jansen), I thought that was a very, very important wicket at that time," Shastri recalled.
Jansen was the sixth Protea wicket to fall in the 18th over with the South Africans requiring 21 runs for victory off 15 balls.
Before that all-rounder Hardik Pandya removed Heinrich Klaasen in the 17th over, caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
"Hardik (Pandya) had done the main damage by taking Klaasen (in the previous over) but I thought back-to-back, that over and that wicket was extremely important." Bumrah was adjudged 'Player of the Tournament' for his 15 wickets at an average of 8.26 and Shastri compared the 30-year-old to former greats like the late Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
"Very few have done it (change the flow of the game). I thought Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis) had it in their prime when they played white-ball cricket. Shane Warne had it where he could literally tell the ball, go there, pitch there, hit leg stump," Shastri said.
"People who are on top of the game have that ability. I think Bumrah had that in this World Cup," he added.
He was all praise for Suryakumar Yadav's stunning catch on the boundary to send back David Miller and reduced the Proteas to 161/7 with just five deliveries remaining in the final.
"I think that (catch) was a game changer because you know what David (Miller) can do," Shastri said.
"Another big shot (from Miller), and then, you know, the game's in the balance. So, I thought the timing couldn't have been better." Shastri said he was amazed by Pant's resoluteness to return to top-notch cricket after a near-fatal car crash, which left him out of the game for more than a year.
"He did his job with the bat, but it was his keeping that really surprised everyone. For someone to recover that quickly and then move the way he did.
"He hardly missed anything, albeit he must have felt the pressure as the tournament got on because it's not easy to come back and do all the stuff he did," Shastri added.
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