Jasprit Bumrah hailed as best all-format bowler by Tim Southee: 'We are seeing a great version of him'

New Zealand pacer Tim Southee has hailed Jasprit Bumrah as the best bowler in all formats at the moment. Southee was also in awe of Bumrah’s capability to bounce back from an 11-month-long layoff due to a back injury.

“To be able to firstly bounce back from the major injury and come back, he’s even better than what he was beforehand. Throw in on top of that, having to juggle multiple formats, can be difficult at times as well,” Southee was quoted by PTI as saying.

“He seems to have been able to do that with ease as well. He’s probably more experienced and understands his game a bit more. He probably had that time where he was injured to come back and be recharged, refreshed,” he added.

Bumrah was one of India’s standout players as they won the T20 World Cup earlier this year. He took 15 wickets in the tournament at an average of 8.26, a strike rate of 11.86, and an economy of 4.17.

He also played a major role last year as India reached the ODI World Cup final.

Southee praised Bumrah for being equally good across the format.

“We are just seeing a great version (of Bumrah) across all three formats. He’s brilliant across all three at the moment. I don’t think there’s anyone that he’s better in (better than him), he is tremendous across all three (formats),” Southee said.

Southee will be face-to-face with Bumrah when New Zealand take on India in a three-Test series starting on 19 October with matches taking place at Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai.