Legendary South African bowler Dale Steyn hailed Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah for being able to deliver wicket-taking yorkers and attain success on “docile pitches”.

In a media interaction ahead of the SA20 final between Durban Super Giants and Sunrisers Eastern Cape taking place on Saturday, Steyn praised Bumrah for his yorkers and said that there are only a handful of bowlers in Tests who can throw some fiery wicket-taking yorkers.

“All round he is (Bumrah) a fantastic bowler. And it is no surprise with his skiddy kind of action that he has got that. He takes wickets on those docile pitches, so he is fantastic. I do not think there is any Test bowlers right now who are able to run in and bowl essentially wicket-taking yorkers. To take wickets in Test matches, there are probably a handful of guys who could do that. Trent Boult was one of those, Mitchell Starc maybe. And, Bumrah,” said Steyn to the media.

Bumrah recently took nine wickets, including a six-wicket haul during the second Test against England at Visakhapatnam. He also completed his 150 Test wickets during the match and is racing towards the 400 wicket mark in international cricket, just 22 more scalps away from it. He also became the number one Test bowler in the ICC Test Rankings following India’s win.

“I remember saying ages back that a good yorker bowled in India or South Africa or Australia remains a good yorker because you take the surface out of it, does not matter where you bowled it. You take the pitch away and I think that is one thing that he has done really well,” he added.

Steyn also lauded the depth of Indian pace battery, consisting of Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur and most recently Prasidh Krishna and Mukesh Kumar. The Proteas legend remarked that though there is a lot of workload in Test cricket, India does not miss Bumrah that much in his absence as the bowlers who take place are “up to the standard”.

“Being an Indian player, there is going to be a lot of workload. There is a lot of cricket that India plays, they are one of the highly after teams in the world. It seems like India do not really miss him because the step-in bowlers are up to the standard, and it is a great credit to the Indian cricket,” said Steyn.

Steyn said that good Test bowlers also make great T20 bowlers. He called for short-format bowlers to play more red-ball cricketing in order to improve their game.

“They have good skill in terms of like when to use a change of pace, when to use this slow ball, when to use their bouncer. I am hoping that a lot of bowlers will get caught on to that and realise that the more red-ball cricket that they play, the better shorter format bowlers they will become,” concluded Steyn.