New Delhi: Jasprit Bumrah delivered a sensational bowling performance to help India defeat New Zealand by eight wickets in the third T20I at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Sunday, January 25. He missed the ODI series against the Kiwis and also rested for the second T20I as the BCCI is managing his workload.

Bumrah was wicketless in the series opener in Nagpur, but picked up three crucial wickets as the Men in Blue took a 3-0 lead in the five match series. He came to bowl in the last over of the power play and removed Tim Siefert on the very first delivery. Bumrah also dismissed Mitchell Santner and Kyle Jamieson to win the Player of the match award.

“I’m happy as far as I’m able to contribute. So if the team wants me to bowl with the new ball I’m more than happy, if they want me to bowl in the end, I’m happy to do that. I did that in Asia Cup as well. That was a new role for me,” Bumrah said in the post-match presentation.

The Men in Blue restricted New Zealand to 153/9 after opting to bowl first. Chasing the target, Matt Henry removed Sanju Samson for a golden duck in the opening over. But Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav played explosive knocks to help India win with 60 balls to spare.

Abhishek smashed the second fastest T20I fifty by an Indian (14 balls) and scored an unbeaten 68 runs off 20 balls with the help of seven boundaries and five maximums. Suryakumar Yadav struck his second consecutive T20I fifty as India won their 9th consecutive bilateral series in the shortest format.

Bumrah opens up on completing 10 years in international cricket

The fast bowler made his debut in January 2016 against Australia and was asked about completing 10 years in international cricket. Bumrah said that it feels really good to know that he has played international cricket for 10 years. The pacer further added that he has gone through a lot of aches and pains, assumptions, and opinions.

“Because when people saw me, I was not supposed to play for long. People gave me six months. So this is something that I was really proud of that playing for your country for so long and hopefully the journey continues but that is something that, you know, it’s a feather in my cap and I’ll keep it with me,” Bumrah added.

So far, Bumrah has played 52 Test matches and picked up 234 wickets. He took 149 wickets in 89 ODI games, and also picked up 103 wickets in 84 T20Is.