James Anderson Reveals Jasprit Bumrah's Act Against England That Left Him Stunned

England great and one of the legends of the game, James Anderson, has been left in awe of India pacer Jasprit Bumrah's bowling precision. It was Bumrah who turned the game on its head as India beat England in the T20 World Cup 2026 semifinal on Thursday. For Anderson, the manner in which Bumrah executes his yorkers with inch-perfect accuracy sets him apart from the rest of the bowlers in the world, whether in men's or women's cricket.

"The thing about Bumrah is, I look at him and think, I don't think you can learn anything from him. He's an absolute freak. There's not one bowler in the world, in any format, men or women, who can bowl six yorkers out of six and absolutely nail it every time. Even one of the yorkers he bowled [vs England] in his last over was a slower ball. So he nailed five fast yorkers and one slower-ball yorker-you just can't hit them anywhere," Anderson said on the BBC podcast.

England had their task cut out in the semifinal against India as they chased a gigantic total of 254. Yet, Jacob Bethell showed exemplary determination and desire to fight on. He scored a breathtaking century, taking all Indian bowlers to the cleaners-except Bumrah.

For Anderson, if it hadn't been for Bumrah, England might well have chased down the target.

"England did really well to get six [runs] off the hole, like they squeezed the ball out. They actually played it pretty well because they thought, 'We know we can't get boundaries off him, or it's going to be really hard to get boundaries off him.' So we'll just take our chances against the other two at the other end.

"And you saw at the end, Dube bowled the last over and went for 22 with Jofra Archer smacking him. I know the game was gone then, but he was trying to bowl a yorker and was missing by a decent margin. It's just a ridiculous skill. There's no one-certainly in T20 cricket-better than him," Anderson concluded.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team England Cricket Team Jasprit Bumrah James Anderson T20 World Cup 2026 Cricket