Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has showered praise on Jasprit Bumrah and said if he had not been there, India won’t have won against England in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2026. The Men in Blue registered a seven-run win against England at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday to book their place in the final against New Zealand.
Bumrah returned with impressive figures of 1-33 in his quota of four overs, on a night when 499 runs were scored collectively by both teams. The ace pacer bamboozled England captain Harry Brook with a slower delivery, with vice-capain Axar Patel taking a brilliant running back catch.
More importantly, with England needing 45 runs off the last three overs in the run-chase of 254, Bumrah conceded only six runs in the 18th over, nailing his yorkers to perfection against Sam Curran and Jacob Bethell.
“You say genius, I say Bumrah. What a guy he is. He is a four-over bank. In bat vs bat contests, one bowling spell changes everything. You would say Hardik Pandya’s spell was also similar, so how is Bumrah better than Hardik? It’s because Bumrah bowled all the difficult overs,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“He bowls two overs in the end, one over in the middle, and one in the powerplay. There is truly no one like Jassi. He made us realize that once again. If he had not been there, I don’t think we could have won this game. We wouldn’t have won the last trophy as well, and wouldn’t have come so close to this trophy,” he added.
Chopra highlighted that Player of the Match Sanju Samson also said the award should go to Bumrah.
“I thought Hardik Pandya could have been the Player of the Match, or he could have shared the award. Sanju actually came and said that Bumrah should have been the Player of the Match. We believe in Jassi bhai, Siraj said that, and Sanju is also saying that,” he observed.
The renowned commentator praised Hardik Pandya for his crucial contribution with the ball. Pandya returned with figures of 2-38 in his four overs, accounting for Phil Salt and Sam Curran. Furthermore, Pandya scored a fine cameo of 12-ball 27 to add the finishing touches.
“Firstly, the way Hardik Pandya finished the innings. When you look back, you feel a strong finish was extremely necessary. If you had not done that, we wouldn’t have reached 250. Then Phil Salt’s wicket. It was an important wicket. Between Jos Buttler and Salt, Salt had slightly better form,” he said.
“When you look back with the rear-view mirror, you say, Hardik, well done. After that, Hardik’s 19th over. So the end overs in batting, the second over in bowling, his first over, his last over, and then him bowling his four overs. If we see his and Bumrah’s spells in numbers, you would say even-stevens. In fact, Hardik has one more wicket,” Chopra observed.
India will take on New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Sunday.
