Was comparing him to McGrath, Akram: Razzaq on calling Bumrah ‘baby bowler’

Bumrah, today, is the world’s premier fast bowler across all formats and Razzaq believes the Indian is on his way to becoming a world class bowler. Razzaq said his statement was misconstrued but maintained that the quality of bowlers when he played was far superior.

Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has made a name for himself for making controversial statements. He courted controversy last year when he called Jasprit Bumrah a “baby bowler” in comparison to the fast bowlers of his times.

Rajkot: Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah bowls during a training session. (PTI)

Bumrah today is the world’s premier fast bowler across all formats and Razzaq believes the Indian is on his way to becoming a world class bowler. Razzaq said his statement was misconstrued but maintained that the quality of bowlers when he played was far superior.

“I do not have anything personal against Bumrah. I was simply comparing him with the likes of Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar. It would have been much tougher to face them. My comments were misconstrued.

“He is heading towards becoming a world-class bowler. But in our times, the bowlers were of much higher calibre. Not many can dispute that,” Razzaq told Press Trust of India.

He also believes that the standard of cricket has fallen now and blamed too much of T20 cricket for this impact.

“You don’t feel the same pressure facing the current crop of pacers. Overall, there is a bad patch in world cricket. We are not producing world class players the way we used to 10-15 years ago.

“You had Tendulkar, Zaheer, Sehwag, Ganguly in the same team. They would have walked into any team. May be too much T20 cricket is responsible for this decline,” he said.