'He's a vaccine for any illness' - Aaron, Moody in awe of Bumrah

"He's like an antidote, a vaccine that can cure any illness, which a bowling side can have."

That's Varun Aaron describing Jasprit Bumrah after the Mumbai Indians (MI) seamer produced figures of 1 for 27 in his team's win against Gujarat Titans (GT) in the IPL 2025 Eliminator. Bumrah conceded only 6.75 per over in a game where the run rate across 40 overs was 11.20.

"If you want wickets, he comes and gets you wickets. If you want to stop runs, he stops runs for you. Man, what a bowler," Aaron said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out. "And the belief he has in his ability. You have an international coach [Mahela Jayawardene] who is obviously panicking because his bowlers have suddenly started to go to the cleaners, and he just turns around and is like 'just calm down, I'll do the job for you'. Comes in, runs in, gets hit for a six and then gets that ball."

The ball Aaron was talking about was the yorker Bumrah produced in the 14th over of the chase to flatten Washington Sundar's leg stump and leave him face-down on the floor. At the time, Washington was well-set on a 23-ball 48 and, in B Sai Sudharsan's company, on course to chase 229 down. But the dismissal, in a four-run over, made GT's chances of a win plummet from 41.82% to 23.31% on ESPNcricinfo's Forecaster. Apart from being a contender for ball of the tournament, it was a moment from which GT never really recovered.

"For him to bowl from that angle is really difficult," Aaron said. "It's easier for him to go wide to a left-hand batter but for him to actually target that leg stump of Washington Sundar... Washy was setting up for something wide or something in his arc, but that was just impossible to negotiate."

Bumrah's latest spell left him at the top of the charts for best economy and best average in IPL 2025 (min. five overs). Despite playing four games fewer than the rest of his MI team-mates, he is No. 6 on the wicket-takers' chart too.

While Hardik Pandya called him a "luxury" at the post-match chat on Friday evening, Tom Moody opted for "pure class".

"The challenge every opposition has to Mumbai Indians, and Jasprit Bumrah more importantly, is that the 24 balls he bowls are such a threat," Moody said. "It's not impossible but it's so difficult to get big overs against him. So you're really playing 20 overs versus 16 to a certain extent. And he is so far ahead of the rest, it's ridiculous.

"The thing with Bumrah is that he's got that genuine wicket-taking ability just through his pure class. That yorker he bowled to Washington Sundar, you just don't bowl a better ball than that. That is the absolute perfect leg-stump yorker that's gone between his legs. At pace. To a batter that's in. Set.

"You see that quite often with a new batter because they still haven't picked up the pace of the game. This is a batter that's in and he's going at 200 strike rate. It just totally blew him away."