'Jasprit Bumrah is like the Don Bradman of bowling': Ex Australian legend

Jasprit Bumrah has emerged as a dominant force in IPL 2025, maintaining an exceptional economy rate of 6.96 with teams choosing to play defensively against him. Since his return from a back injury that kept him out for four matches, Mumbai Indians have won six out of seven games, with Bumrah averaging nearly 10 dot balls per match, leading Australia's Adam Gilchrist to compare him to the legendary Don Bradman.
In his seven IPL matches this season, Bumrah has bowled 69 balls with remarkable consistency. Only Khaleel Ahmed and Josh Hazlewood have registered better dot ball percentages, though they've conceded over 8 runs per over, while Bumrah maintains his economy under 7.
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After initial struggles where he went wicketless against RCB and conceded 44 runs against DC, Bumrah has shown tremendous improvement. His recent performances against LSG and RR were particularly impressive, claiming six wickets while conceding just 37 runs in 8 overs.

"He's maybe the best bowler, fast bowler of all time. When you start stacking up the statistics and the varying conditions that he has to go out and execute those skills in, I guess you look at Sir Donald Bradman's numbers compared to his peers and he's just so far ahead, so I think Bumrah is sort of in that category across all the different variations that you get in conditions and pitches that you've got to bowl on. He's significantly further ahead than the peers around him, so that tells you we are truly watching greatness," Gilchrist remarked on Cricbuzz.
The comparison to Bradman is particularly significant as the former Australian legend retired with a Test average of nearly 100, while no other batter with more than 10 Tests has averaged above 65.

Bumrah's impact was evident in the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he emerged as the highest wicket-taker with 32 wickets at an average of 13, despite India losing the series 1-3.
"A seamer from India, consistently throughout, particularly the series that we just saw in the summer, back home in the Australian summer, no, I don't think so," Gilchrist commented on whether Australians had ever been as intimidated by an Indian bowler as they were by Bumrah.
"We just sat and watched in awe at close range commentating on that series and again, I know it's a different format, but he is the best all-format bowler; that's nothing to argue there," added the former Australian wicketkeeper-batter.

Former India spinner Dinesh Karthik called Bumrah a 'national treasure'.
"He's a national treasure, I think at the moment for us a lot, whoever follows cricket and wants India to do well, during the BGT, I think all of us were wishing that he could bowl from both ends. India looked a different side and he looked a different bowler against Australia, he is, look, one of the things which I felt with Bumrah over the period of time is that he acclimatises to any pitch very quickly and I think many bowlers have a certain length that they bowl, but he doesn't have a certain length, he bowls the length which is required on that surface and that's his greatness, the oddity of his action, obviously everybody talks about, but coupled with the skills that he has and a great brain, when to use it," Kartik observed.