SA vs IND 2021: He is a captain’s delight – Dinesh Karthik hails Jasprit Bumrah

India’s veteran wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik has showered praise on gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. The ace paceman provided two crucial breakthroughs at the fag end of the penultimate day in the opening Test match against South Africa at SuperSport, Centurion on Wednesday.

Bumrah got the ball to jag back at Rassie van der Dussen and clanked the top of off-stump. The tourists were in dire straits for a breakthrough as Rassie van de Dussen and Dean Elgar had kept the Virat Kohli-led team at bay with a gutsy partnership. Subsequently, Bumrah bowled a deadly yorker to get rid of nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj.

After dismissing Rassie van der Dussen, Bumrah also completed 100 Test wickets in foreign conditions, getting there in 25 Test matches at an impressive average of 20.68 and a strike rate of 47.6, and became the sixth Indian pacer to achieve the milestone after Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, and Javagal Srinath.

Moreover, Bumrah made a world record with that dismissal becoming the bowler with the fewest Test wickets to 100 dismissals away from home. Overall, Bumrah has 105 wickets in 27 Test matches with the remaining four wickets coming in two home Test matches.

Karthik said while speaking to Cricbuzz, “With Bumrah, where he loads the ball and where he releases the ball, it’s like two completely different places, so you’ve got to be very aware of that. But again it’s a matter of batting him for a certain amount of time, and then you get a certain feel…”

“What’s amazing about him is not only the ability to use the angles but also go round the wicket (and) in many ways intimidate batsmen and then produce this unplayable delivery to a nightwatchman – just the way he sets up his belief systems. He’s a captain’s delight.”

On the other hand, Bumrah stared at Dean Elgar after dismissing Keshav Maharaj with a peach of a yorker. Elgar and Maharaj were taking their time before the day’s end.

Reflecting on the same, former South African skipper Shaun Pollock said, “It was interesting to see his (Bumrah’s) cheekiness when he got that wicket, turned around and looked at Dean Elgar as if to say ‘Yeah, you guys were taking your time, but we still managed to get you out’. And you would have probably been impressed by Dean Elgar; he showed some real grit. It’s one of his best characteristics – to get stuck in there and last for a period of time.”

India is in dominating position as they need another six wickets to win the opening Test while South Africa requires 211 runs to create history.