Former South African fast bowler Dale Steyn has asked Jasprit Bumrah to “learn to take it” after the Indian superstar had a little bit of a confrontation with the young South African seamer Marco Jansen during the third day’s play of the ongoing second test match between India and South Africa at Wanderers.
When Jasprit Bumrah came out to bat today, Marco Jansen tried to pepper him with a few fast and short deliveries and Bumrah, being a tail-ender, was clearly finding it hard to put them away, but he was ready to fight. However, he got a bit annoyed when Jansen started sledging him.
Jansen was probably telling Bumrah not to move away from the line of the ball, while Bumrah was trying to tell him that he could move into any position as a batsman, why is it bothering the bowler?
The sledging between the two players reached a point where they charged towards each other, and it seemed like turning into a heated altercation before the on-field umpire interrupted.
Dale Steyn, thereafter, responded to a tweet which criticised Bumrah for that altercation. Steyn said Bumrah did the same thing to the England no. 11 James Anderson a few months ago when Anderson was batting in a situation where India were at the top of the game.
Bumrah, in that game, had bowled a few bouncers to Anderson, which had angered Anderson. However, the situation there was slightly different. Anderson was actually annoyed by the fact that Bumrah was bowling bouncers to him, but Bumrah, while facing Jansen, was not annoyed by the bouncers. He was simply annoyed by the sledging that Jansen was handing out.
Dale Steyn has passed controversial statements in the past too
Bumrah is someone who never backs away from a challenge anyway, even with the bat, despite being a tail-ender and even in the first innings, he put in a brave effort with the bat against the likes of Kagiso Rabada and other South African pacers.
For Steyn to ask Bumrah to “learn to take it” when Bumrah didn’t even back away from the battle was something that didn’t quite please the Indian fans.
I swear I remember Bumrah doing the same thing to a Mr James Anderson not too long ago.
Learn to take it kid.— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) January 5, 2022
Dale Steyn had passed a controversial statement about IPL as well, a while back, calling it an event only about money and not so much about cricket and he had to cope a lot of criticism for that. The former Proteas bowler seems to be going to have to take the flak again, for his comment on Bumrah.
