Jasprit Bumrah Creates Unique Record In His 1st Match As India’s T20I Captain
Star Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who made his T20I captaincy debut for Team India on Friday (August 18) during the first T20I of the ongoing three-match series against Ireland in Dublin, became the first Indian player to have managed to win the Player of the Match award on his T20I captaincy debut.
JB made a fairytale comeback to competitive cricket after a gap of almost 11 months during the first match Ind vs Ireland at The Village in Dublin on Friday (August 18). The right-arm pacer, who is one of the greatest fast bowlers India has ever produced, got rid of the former Ireland skipper on the second ball of the match. He was hit for a four by Balbirnie on the first ball of the match, but on the next delivery, he got his revenge when he shattered his stumps. And then, three balls later, he sent wicketkeeper-batsman Lorcan Tucker back to the dugout. The 26-year-old right-handed batter was caught by Sanju Samson behind the wickets.
Bumrah picked up a total of two wickets for 24 runs in his quota of four overs for the Men in Blue in the series opener, which they won by two runs (D/L method). For his superb show, Bumrah won the Player of the Match award in the first T20I. By winning the POTM award in the series opener, Bumrah, who became the 11th player to lead India in T20Is on Friday and the first fast bowler to do so, created a unique record of becoming the first and only Indian cricketer to have managed to bag the POTM award on his T20I captaincy debut.
Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya are 10 other players who have captained India in T20Is before Bumrah, but none of them managed to win the POTM award.
By taking two wickets in the first T20I, Bumrah, who was playing in his first competitive match since featuring against Australia on September 25, 2022, became India’s joint-fourth-highest wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game. He equaled star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s tally of 72 T20I wickets. Ashwin, whose last T20I appearance for India was against England on November 10, 2022, during the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal, has 72 wickets to his name in 65 T20Is, where Bumrah matched his tally in his 61st T20I.