The dynamics of cricket has seen a rapid change since the inception of T20 cricket. Batters and bowlers now have a neck to neck fight while facing each other in death overs, especially in the shorter formats.
However, T20 cricket has seen death bowling reaching the level of art. And a few of the modern cricket bowlers added this art to their arsenal in order to play with the batters’ minds and produce beautiful spells.
As the T20 World cup begins in a week, the Financial Express takes a look into the stats of some death bowling maestros over the years in T20Is.
Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah has been the most lethal bowling weapon for India since 2016. His speciality is bowling inch-perfect deadly yorkers and slower bouncers which deceive and frustrate batsmen at the death overs.
Bumrah has picked up 59 wickets in only 49 innings at a whooping economy of 6.66 only. It will be crucial for India to win it this time.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bhuvneshwar is the perfect partner for Bumrah in the death overs for India. His speciality is swinging both the new and old balls to extract an edge from the batters. He picked up 50 wickets in 51 innings with an economy of 6.90.
He is a pro when it comes to bowling dots in the death overs which snatches the momentum from the opponent. Also, the pressure his dot balls create on the batsmen leads to wickets for the bowler at the other end. His slower knuckleballs are unplayable at times.
Trent Boult
Trent Boult is renowned for his inswingers and Yorkers. He has played 34 T20 international matches for New Zealand and picked up 46 wickets at an economy of 8.54. He is effective in taking wickets at the death overs to slow down the opponent momentum.
Mitchell Starc
Mitchell Starc is the most valuable bowling asset for the Aussies. His lethal toe-crushers makes him fiery to the best of the batters of this format. He has 51 wickets to his name in 41 matches at an economy of only 7.23.
Batters find it hard to score as he aims for the legs often. This actually works big time for Starc in the death overs to restrict the opponent within a minimum possible score.
Mustafizur Rahman
Mustafizur Rahman is the cutter wizard of Bangladesh. His main strength is his cricketing brain and cutter deliveries. He flaunts an outstanding record of 76 wickets in only 52 matches with an economy of only 7.48.
The Fizz has proved himself in the past and will be joining the team with high confidence carried from recent IPL performances.
Also, in the last two series he played for Bangladesh -- against Australia and New Zealand, he was instrumental for the team with an economy rate of less than 5 in the death overs.
