England batting icon Geoff Boycott chooses end-of-career judgement over current performance while raising a toast to both greats; surprised at Australia’s inability to cope with probing Indian attack at Perth
Jasprit Bumrah and Kapil Dev
Former England captain Geoff Boycott has lashed out at claims of India’s lead pacer and stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah being a better bowler than former India skipper and 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, saying both bowlers cannot be compared.
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“How can someone say Bumrah is a better bowler than Kapil? I am surprised to hear this. First of all, we should not make any comparisons between Bumrah and Kapil. Bumrah is a fast bowler, beautiful bowler, but I can’t say he is better than Kapil, who was an amazing bowler, a magnificent swing bowler,” the former opener remarked.
Impressive stats
Bumrah, who led India to a historic 295-run victory over Australia in the first game of the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at Perth on Monday, has 181 wickets from 41 Tests. Kapil, on the other hand, claimed 434 wickets in 131 Tests in a career spanning 16 years – 1978 to 1994.
Geoff Boycott
“I am sure the critics have not seen Kapil at his best. They are making comments on the basis of current performances. The problem is the best cricketers of yesteryears did not have all the video footage [to help them],” added Boycott, who faced Kapil on India’s tour of England in 1979, the 1980 Jubilee Test and on the 1981-82 Test tour of India, the last of his career.
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The batting great, who scored 8,114 runs in 108 Tests at 47.72, elaborated on his displeasure: “There will come a time when the young generation will not give due credit to even Donald Bradman and Douglas Jardine. The young generation should get their facts right by reading books or listening to comments of the older generation.”
Well done, India
Meanwhile, Boycott, 84, praised Bumrah, who claimed eight wickets to turn the match in India’s favour at Perth. “Bumrah is great, but not the greatest Indian bowler. I’m happy that India won in Perth. They really played well. Bumrah showed enough courage to bat after winning the toss. He must be a confident man. The whole team backed the captain,” he said.
“I’m happy to see young [Yashasvi] Jaiswal and Virat [Kohli] get hundreds. Runs are important, but a team must have the potential to take 20 wickets of the opposition as well. Bumrah should know that he is a great threat. Other bowlers also backed him up. It was a great Test match.”
Boycott was concerned about Australia’s batting show. “I was surprised to see the batting failure of the Aussies. They just could not face the Indian attack,” he signed off.
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