The T20 World Cup 2022 is about five months from today. India are expected to carry some express pace in their squad to take advantage of the bounce Australian pitches offer. The leader of the pack will be Jasprit Bumrah. 

Bumrah on Monday registered his best T20 figures. He picked five wickets for 10 runs, his first fifer in the IPL, against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai. Mumbai Indians lost by 52 runs but as skipper Rohit Sharma said – ‘Bumrah was special today’. 

The speedster’s spell included plenty sharp bouncers, back-of-length balls and some on-the-stump deliveries mixed with slower ones to challenge the KKR batters. The 28-year-old dismissed the likes of Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Sheldon Jackson and Sunil Narine in four overs, one of which was a triple wicket maiden. 

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Bumrah’s wicket-taking abilities were in question before the KKR game. The paceman had taken five wickets in 10 games. However, his comeback spell spoke volumes on the MI mainstay’s quality. Him coming back into the zone is good news for the five-time IPL champions and team India. 

Several former cricketers and India’s ex-coach Ravi Shastri commended Bumrah’s show. Mumbai Indians coach and Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene picked Bumrah in his top 5 for dream T20 team. The speedster was in fact the only Indian there. 

With the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Umesh Yadav already doing well with the ball and names like Umran Malik and Kuldeep Sen coming up, Indian selectors should have a good headache deciding the bowling attack for the World Cup. 

Bumrah, after the match, spoke about his performance. The MI player said that the “noise outside” doesn’t affect him personally.

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“Look we prepare for the tournament and we have our process, we don’t look at the end result. If you understand the game, you have to really observe what’s going on, what is the game like, what situation you are bowling like, and for me personally I was very happy with the rhythm going on throughout the tournament,” Bumrah said at the post-match press conference. 

“I know there is a lot of noise outside that goes on but it doesn’t really affect me. Because I am not a person who judges my performance on what others think or what the experts are saying or whatever people want to say,” he added.

Mumbai Indians are already out of the IPL 2022 playoff race. They will play the Chennai Super Kings on Thursday.