"He made batting look so much harder" - Former Australia captain hails Jasprit Bumrah for his heroics in BGT 2024-25

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has heaped praise on Jasprit Bumrah, saying his performance in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was the best fast-bowling display he had ever seen in a Test series. Ponting felt the Indian speedster was significantly better than the other fast bowlers in the rubber.

The 31-year-old finished with a staggering 32 wickets in five Tests at 13.06 apiece. However, he couldn't bowl in the fourth innings of the fifth Test in Sydney due to a back spasm, handing Australia a massive advantage on a tricky surface.

When asked whether it was the best series of fast bowling he had ever witnessed, Ponting agreed and credited Bumrah for making batters look silly. He told the ICC:

"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. There's a lot of quality batting in that Australian top-order as well but he made all of them at different times look silly."

The Sydney Test saw him bowl ten overs in Australia's first innings, dismissing Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne. The 31-year-old bowled a total of 151.2 overs in the series.

"We've shown we have a lot of talent in our group" - Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah. (Image Credits: Getty)

At the post-match presentation after the Sydney Test, Bumrah, who was named the Player of the Series, said the youngsters stepping up in different situations was a significant positive for India. He hoped to see them thrive moving forward. He stated, as quoted by Cricbuzz:

"Sometimes all these learnings are important. Young players come up and they score runs, have success through a certain way, but in Test cricket you have to sometimes adapt to the situation, make your game work in a different manner as well. These learnings will help us in the future. They've gained a lot of experience; they'll only go from strength to strength from here. Australia is not the easiest place to play cricket, but we've shown we have a lot of talent in our group, it's all about adapting and learning new things about your game."

The 3-1 series loss also meant that India fell out of contention for a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.