Former South African fast bowler Faf du Plessis has picked Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah as the greatest fast bowler of all time. In a video shared by ESPNCricinfo, when asked to pick a better fast bowler than
Bumrah, Du Plessis didn’t choose anyone from the list of players that included the likes of Lasith Malinga, Kapil Dev, Allan Donald, Dale Steyn, Brett Lee, Ian Botham, Waqar Younis, Courtney Walsh, James Anderson, Pat Cummins, Glenn McGrath, Richard Hadlee, Mitchell Starc, Curtly Ambrose, Malcolm Marshall, Wasim Akram and Dennis Lillee.
“I’m going to stay with Bumrah,” Faf said.
When asked if there is any fast bowler he would have picked over Bumrah, Faf said, “No.”
He then explained the reason behind picking Bumrah as the greatest.
“(Bumrah is greatest) because the greats of the game didn’t play T20. So it’s difficult to judge them against someone that’s so effective in T20. But all of those guys. I think especially of Wasim Akram and his yorkers at the end. But the ball reversed swing a lot back in the day. It’s not swinging as much (now). So Bumrah is my number one,” Faf said.
Since making his international debut for India against Australia during an ODI match played in Sydney on January 23, 2016, Bumrah has picked up 497 wickets for India in 233 matches played across formats. He has 234 wickets to his credit in 52 Tests, 149 wickets in 89 ODIs and 114 wickets in 92 T20I matches.
Bumrah picked up 15 wickets in the 2024 T20 World Cup and bagged the Player Of The Tournament award. He also finished as the highest wicket-taker in Tests in 2024 and also won the ICC Cricketer Of The Year and ICC Test Cricketer Of The Year awards.
In the IPL, Bumrah represents the Mumbai Indians, and in the world’s richest franchise cricket league, he has dismissed 183 batters so far in 145 matches for the Mumbai-based franchise.
Bumrah is representing India in the T20 World Cup 2026 these days. If Bumrah manages to take at least three wickets in India’s third Super 8s match on Sunday (March 1) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, then he will become the fourth Indian fast bowler after Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan to take 500 or more wickets for India.
