Ponting hails Bumrah for making the Australia top-order look silly: The ultimate praise for his sensational bowling series

Bumrah played a crucial role in keeping India competitive in almost every match of the series, with his absence in the fourth innings of the SCG Test proving detrimental to the team's performance. Unfortunately, the 31-year-old was sidelined due to back issues and was unable to bowl in the second innings of the final Test, where India fell short in defending a modest target of 162 runs.

Ponting was highly impressed with Bumrah's performance and rated him best in the business. He said he had witnessed the best series of fast bowling by a pacer he has ever seen.

"No doubt, it's probably the best series of fast bowling I've ever seen. Yes, they had good conditions, the fast bowlers, for most of this series. But when you watched him (Bumrah) bowl compared to anyone else in the series, he made batting look so much harder,” Ponting told ICC.

During his iconic run, Bumrah also overtook former India captain Kapil Dev to hold the record for most Test wickets by an Indian in Australia -- 64 scalps at 17.15 compared to Kapil's 51 at 24.58.

The two-time World Cup-winning skipper said that Bumrah made the top-class Australian batting line-up look silly on several occasions in the series.

“There's a lot of quality batting in that Australian top-order as well but he made all of them at different times look silly,” he added.

‘Missed out on the spiciest wicket of the series’: Bumrah on injury

Bumrah expressed his disappointment for not bowling in the second innings of the SCG Test but revealed he had some issues while bowling during the first innings when he came out to bowl his second spell.

“Little frustrating but sometimes you have to respect your body, you can’t fight your body,” Bumrah said in the post-match presentation. “Disappointing, probably missed out on the spiciest wicket of the series. I felt a bit of discomfort during my second spell in the first innings.”

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