New Delhi: Cricketing icon Virat Kohli has expressed high admiration for prominent Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, stating that the 31-year-old pacer from Ahmedabad, who represents the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL), is the most challenging bowler he has encountered. Kohli believes that Bumrah is the top bowler globally across all formats and noted that he has been dismissed by him several times during the IPL.
“No doubt about the fact that Jasprit (Bumrah) is the best bowler in the world across all the formats. He’s gotten me out a few times in the IPL. I’ve had success against him in the IPL, so whenever I face him, it’s like, ‘Okay, it’s going to be fun,’ because we don’t get to do that in the nets,” Kohli said in a video shared by RCB’s official social media handles.
“I mean, even he and I in the nets, it’s like playing a match. The intensity is like we play a match in the IPL, where every ball is like, I wanted to hit him for runs, and he wants to get me out, and I try not to get out of him, so you can sense it like he’s at match intensity, I’m at match intensity. So today he’s probably the marker that I keep when I play against him in the nets regularly; that I would say is the most enjoyable and the toughest challenge,” he added.
Bumrah played his first IPL match for the Mumbai Indians on April 4, 2013, facing the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where he took three wickets for 32 runs in four overs.
Kohli hit boundaries off the first, second, and fourth balls of the opening over, but on the fifth ball, Bumrah, who was 19 at the time, dismissed Kohli by trapping him in front of the wickets, securing his first wicket.
Bumrah has taken a total of 165 wickets in 133 matches in the IPL to date. He is one of three players who have secured five IPL championships with the Mumbai Indians.
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