New Zealand vs India 2020: Zaheer Khan wants Bumrah to be more aggressive; explains why he went wicketless in ODI series

Former India pacer Zaheer Khan believes that Jasprit Bumrah's reputation of being an extremely dangerous bowler has made batsmen extra cautious whilst facing him, which is why he's found it difficult to pick up wickets recently.

India suffered their first ODI whitewash in 31 years when New Zealand pummeled them 3-0, with Bumrah returning wicketless for the first time ever in a bilateral ODI series. Of course, the failure of their premier pacer was one of the main reasons behind India's failure to win a single game, as they simply couldn't stop New Zealand from chasing relatively decent targets or stop the flow of runs in the middle overs.

Khan acknowledged the fact that Bumrah has built a reputation of being one of the most lethal bowlers of this era and as a result, batsmen are willing to milk a few runs off his deliveries without conceding their wicket. Khan believes that Bumrah has to realize this and become much more aggressive in his approach if he is to pick up scalps regularly, as more and more batsmen have adopted an increasingly conservative approach when he is bowling.

“When you build a reputation like how Jasprit Bumrah has built now over the years, you will have to fight this,” Zaheer told Cricbuzz.

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“Bumrah is in a phase where teams are saying ‘even if we get thirty five runs we are happy with that as long as we are not giving him wickets because then we can attack the other bowlers’."

“That is something which Bumrah will have to understand that he has to be extra aggressive in terms of looking to get those wickets because he knows the batsmen are going to be defensive."

"So, he has to find that way of going for wickets rather than hoping that the batsmen will make a mistake because batsmen are taking a very conservative approach and making sure that his wicket-taking column is not getting filled."