Ricky Ponting on facing Jasprit Bumrah: ‘I’d charge him every ball, I’d run down the wicket, I’d hit him back over his head…that’s very much a joke’ | Cricket News

Jasprit Bumrah picked up eight wickets in the first Test at Perth which helped India to thrash Australia 295 runs to take a 1-0 lead. In his spell, the bowler looked unplayable at times and it was hard to predict where the next run was coming from for the Aussies.
Speaking of how he would deal with Bumrah former Australian cricketer Ricky Pointing said,” “I’d charge him every ball, I’d run down the wicket, I’d hit him back over his head. That’s very much a joke, but I’d try to be proactive and put pressure back on the bowler. I’d be reacting to the ball, but I’d be trying to score. Like I said, the reason that he’s so good is because he doesn’t let you score. The flip side of the best bowlers not letting you score is that the best batsmen don’t allow bowlers to bowl that way. That’s the way I would approach it as well.”
“It’s the build-up of pressure,” said Ponting. “Curtly Ambrose was the same, Glenn McGrath was the same. Like any of the great fast bowlers, they make scoring difficult.You just don’t score off him [Bumrah].
After taking 400 wickets Bumrah has the second-best average of 20.88 in international cricket after Joel Garner. With the numbers piling up and the match-winning spell bowled at Perth the debate has begun among the cricketing fraternity of where Bumrah stands among all-time greats in the game.
“I think he’s definitely India’s greatest fast bowler,” Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting said to ICC. “A lot of the greats before him didn’t play all three formats as much as he has. can put my hand up and ask people to sit back and watch and say that in T20 cricket, one-day cricket and Test match cricket, he’s clearly the best right now. It’s not all about wickets. It’s about performing at a high level for a long period of time. We saw the other day when he gets the right conditions, just how good he can be.”