Jasprit Bumrah is the best Indian fast bowler I have ever seen, would have fit in our bowling line-up: Andy Roberts

New Delhi, Aug 28: Jasprit Bumrah is just 11 Test matches old but India pacer has already carved a niche for himself in such a short span of time in the red-ball cricket. He's one of the most feared bowlers in world cricket and his ability to learn quickly and adapt to the conditions makes him even more dangerous.

Experts doubted that the young India slinger wouldn't be able to replicate his white-ball exploits in the longer format of the game and that wouldn't be as effective and his unorthodox action would pose a threat to his longevity. But ever since his debut in South Africa, the right-arm pacer hasn't looked back.

Bumrah has picked up fifers on all four overseas tours he's travelled i.e. South Africa, England, Australia and West Indies. He became the first Asian to achieve this feat, something even the greats like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Kapil Dev, Muttiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble couldn't achieve in their entire career. While Bumrah has done it in his first-ever tour to these countries.

The speedster picked up a fifer in the second innings of the first Test against West Indies in North Sound, Antigua. He returned with astonishing figures of 8-4-7-5 as the Windies' innings crumbled for 100, giving India their biggest ever overseas win by a margin of 318 runs.

With his bowling in the second innings, Bumrah showed the cricketing world that he has now mastered the art of outswing and by adding such a potent weapon in his arsenal the Indian speedster is going to make the life of a batsman hell.

Not just Indian cricketers and fans, even the Caribbean bowling greats are in awe of Bumrah's mastery of his art. Sir Andy Roberts and Curtly Ambrose seem impressed with Bumrah's skills and ability to learn quickly.

'Bumrah's pace catches my eyes first'

In an interview with The Indian Express, Andy Roberts - who was part of the famous West Indies quartet - is mighty pleased with Bumrah's pace and said, "It's the pace that catches my eyes first. I wouldn't say the pace is the biggest asset of a fast bowler but I would say it's the most valuable one. If you have pace, batsmen fear you, because, at the back of the mind, they are thinking of safety, how to avoid being hit. You can mix the pace and fool them.

And if you can swing the ball at his pace, nothing like it. Such bowlers thrill you," he says. And Bumrah "does this brilliantly."

'Bumrah doesn't waste a single delivery'

"They say batsmen have become soft. I would say the bowlers have, too. They don't attack the batsmen, they wait for them to make a mistake. They keep bowling outside the off-stump, tempting them to make mistakes. It's not the way we did it. We made them play at each ball. Bumrah doesn't waste a single delivery. Fast bowling takes a lot of energy and if you waste a ball, you lose a lot of energy," said Roberts, who picked up 202 Test wickets in 47 Tests for West Indies.

'Bumrah would have fit in our bowling line-up'

Roberts was part of the great pace quartets that also included Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft and Malcolm Marshall. And he believes that with his freakish action, Bumrah could have been one of them.

"It's the strangest action that I have seen on a cricket field. I need to study that for a longer time to understand the mechanics of his action. But if he were born here back in our days, we would have had him. A freak was the only element missing in our bowling line-up. In fact, Bumrah is the only variety of bowler we had never produced. Then I don't think even India would produce one like him again," he said further.

'Best Indian fast bowler'

Andy Roberts said that he never thought India would ever produce such a pacer and that the right-arm slinger is the best Indian pacer he's ever seen.

"In my time, it was all spin. Good ones, but they wouldn't win you matches overseas. India had Kapil Dev and some others, but we never thought they could produce someone as lethal as Bumrah. He's the best Indian fast bowler I have seen," Roberts told Indian Express further.

Bumrah could have played in any era: Ambrose

Another Windies pace great, Curtly Ambrose - who picked up 405 Test wickets in 98 matches - loves the way Bumrah out-thinks the batsmen with his craft and that makes him a complete bowler.

"At times, he rekindles memories of our prime. The pace, aggression, the hostility, the craft. The way he outclasses the batsmen, the way he out-thinks them. He could have been one of us, he's so complete a bowler that he could have played in any era," Ambrose told Indian Express.