Bumrah is a national treasure: Suryakumar Yadav

India’s triumphant captain Suryakumar Yadav on Sunday called Jasprit Bumrah a “national treasure”, coming up with the most appropriate superlative for the talismanic pacer after his incredible bowling in the T20 World Cup.

With their 96-run victory over New Zealand in the summit showdown here, Suryakumar’s men became the first men’s international team to win successive World T20 titles and also the first to claim the trophy on home turf.

“Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation bowler. I can call him a national treasure. He knows how it needs to be done, he is the best in the business,” Suryakumar said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

In the title clash, Bumrah ended with exceptional figures of 4/15 in four overs to help India bowl out New Zealand for 159 after the home team batters fired in unison to post an imposing 255 for five. “I think it’ll take a little bit of time but definitely very happy. Been a long journey. Started post the 2024 World Cup. Jay Shah, Rohit bhai, they all showed faith in me and gave me the opportunity to lead. From there, it’s been a long journey and coming here and winning it,” Surya said.

The skipper was full of praise for his players who rose to the occasion to help the team achieve unprecedented success.

“We have been playing good cricket in the last two years and we just wanted to follow the good cricketing habits that we had in the 2024 World Cup. Boys took it really well.”

On keeping faith in players, the Mumbai man said, “I think it’s really important to understand what they are capable of. And I knew they had the match winners in them. The timing was perfect. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma they are top players and we knew they would do something special, and they did it in the final.”

Sanju Samson (89 off 46 balls) and Abhishek Sharma (52 off 21 balls) added 92 in Powerplay and 98 for the opening stand and then Ishan Kishan carried on the good work with his explosive half-century.

In front of 86,000 fans, the chase was out of question as New Zealand were bowled out cheaply.