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Cricket Players'We didn't see a lot of that in Australia': Mills expects India pacer to be 'wrecker-in-chief' against England
Mills feels the pacer will benefit a lot bowling on Indian pitches and has backed him to trouble England with his reverse swing, something he believes was pretty scarce during the Australia Tests.
Former New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills is confident that India quick Jasprit Bumrah can be quite a handful against England in the Test series. Bumrah, who is playing his first Test on home soil, picked up two wickets on Day 1 of the first Test in Chennai, dismissing Dan Lawrence for a duck and later Dom Sibley during the closing moments of the day. Given that England haven’t seen much of the India fast bowler in Test matches, Mills reckons Bumrah can really make it hard on some of the English batsmen.
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"A player I think who's going to have a major factor in this series and he actually hasn't played a lot in India is Bumrah. Why I say Bumrah is that yes, he has pace, but he's also a bowler England have not seen a lot of. Yes, a little bit in white-ball cricket but not a huge amount in Tests," Mills said on his YouTube channel.
Bumrah picked up 14 wickets in three Tests the last time India played England in a Test series – the 2018 Pataudi Trophy in the UK – but since, Bumrah has grown significantly in the last couple of years, including picking up a Test hat-trick against West Indies in September of 2019. Mills feels Bumrah will benefit a lot bowling on Indian pitches and has backed the fast bowler to trouble England with his reverse swing, something he believes was pretty scarce during the Australia Tests.
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"He is a little bit unusual in his bowling technique. He is fast, he swings the new ball. And the aspect of his bowling that is really going to come to play is the reverse swing. We didn't see a lot of that in Australia, but with the nature of the subcontinent wickets and the wickets in India - with the abrasive surface - I think reverse swing is going to play a big part in the series," Mills explained.
"In my opinion, Bumrah is one of the best reverse swing bowlers in the world. With his pace, with his unorthodox fast action, I think he can wreak havoc on some of these players in the English line-up."
