Australian great Mark Waugh has included India's pace-bowling mainstay Jaspit Bumrah in his list of five cricketers who he thinks are the best T20I players in the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Waugh is confident the 28-year-old Bumrah, ranked 45th in the ICC T20I bowling ranking, will fire during the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia next month.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I think he's a fantastic bowler in all formats, actually," Waugh said of the Bumrah, who has had to miss a couple of white-ball series of late to tend to his old back injury.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"His ability to get wickets in T20 cricket is key. He can bowl at the death and he can bowl up front," added Waugh.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The former all-rounder, known for his top-order blitzkrieg and athletic fielding in the slip cordon, also picked Pakistan quick Shaheen Afridi in his top-5<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"To open the bowling at the other end we'll go with another great opening bowler, Shaheen Afridi from Pakistan, who is a tremendous left-arm fast bowler," Waugh, a member of Australia's 1999 Cricket World Cup-winning squad, said on ICC.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"He's a wicket-taker. He sort of lifts the team. He's a guy that other players follow. He is a left-armer so that's another point of difference. He can swing the ball back into the right-hander, he's quick as well, so I've got him number two," added Waugh about Afridi, ranked 19th among bowlers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The other three Waugh picks include Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan (fourth in the T20I ranking for bowlers), England skipper Jos Buttler (T20I batting ranking 15th) and Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (T20I batting ranking 29th, all-rounder ranking 6th).<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"In all competitions he (Rashid) plays in, he's just the one guy who you know is going to bowl four overs," said Waugh of the Afghanistan cricketer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"He'll probably get two or three wickets and go for 20 runs, and he can bat. He can also whack the ball over the fence."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
For England white-ball skipper Buttler, Waugh said, "I think he's probably the number one batsman in world cricket in the T20 format. He's just a clean striker of the ball. We've seen him in all tournaments, he just looks on a different level to other players."<\/p>\r\n\r\n