FORMER India head coach Ravi Shastri stopped just short of calling Jasprit Bumrah a magician with the ball.
He said the pacer's standout moments in the T20 World Cup in the Americas were India managing to thwart Pakistan's charge in the group stage and Rohit Sharma's side pulling the rabbit out of the hat in the final against South Africa.
India managed to defend a paltry 119 in their Group A clash against the arch-rivals, winning the contest by six runs with Bumrah changing the momentum of the game by getting rid of the dangerous Mohammad Rizwan to send Pakistan into a free fall when they were chugging along nicely at 80/3.
Bumrah then bowled a game-changing spell against the Proteas in the final at Barbados, conceding just four runs in the 16th over before getting rid of the dangerous power-hitter Marco Jansen to take the fight out of the rivals in the chase of 176.
"He (Bumrah) just showed the world what it takes...and you know, it's not often in your career when you have a ball in your hand and you say, 'do this and the ball does that'," Shastri said in the ICC Review.
"I think the India-Pakistan (match) because India were made to fight there and realise what the right combination should be going forward in the tournament. That and then of course the (T20 World Cup) final, those final five overs," said Shastri.
Rohit unleashed Bumrah in the death overs on the well-set Rizwan and the wicket shifted the momentum back to India.
"I'd say one was Jasprit (Bumrah) getting Mohammad Rizwan. Extremely crucial, because that could have tilted the balance of the game. And it happened on the first ball of a new spell," he added.
Shastri said his other favourite moment was Bumrah sending back Jansen.
"Brought back into the attack and then getting it to reverse and sneak through bat and pad (of Marco Jansen), I thought that was a very, very important wicket at that time," Shastri recalled.
Jansen was the sixth Protea wicket to fall in the 18th over with the South Africans requiring 21 runs for victory off 15 balls.
Before that all-rounder Hardik Pandya removed Heinrich Klaasen in the 17th over, caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Bumrah was adjudged 'Player of the Tournament' for his 15 wickets at an average of 8.26 and Shastri compared the 30-year-old to former greats like the late Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. (PTI)
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