“In his destructive spell, Bumrah reminds everyone of his brilliance,” said Vivian Richards once in an interview.
Jasprit Bumrah, the former number 1 ODI and T20 bowler, has been an asset to the Indian team since his debut. In his debut ODI series against Australia in 2016, former captain and wicket-keeper Ms. Dhoni adjudged him as the “Find of the season” owing to some of the most brilliant bowling spells the world had seen in recent times.
Right from the unorthodox action to a short crisp run-up, Bumrah was always destined for greatness. The world is evidence of his bowling prowess for India in national colors as well as for his IPL team, Mumbai Indians.
He has kept on adding up more and more to his armory right from skull-crushing bouncers to toe crushing yorkers, inswingers outswingers and the deceptive slower ones have all emerged to be his tools to absolute success.
But earlier in September 2019, Bumrah played a test against WestIndies where he picked up a hat-trick and later in the match reported of back stiffness.
As a result, he was tested for the next series against SouthAfrica and since then he was out there rehabilitating at NCA in Bengaluru. Later he traveled to the UK in October 2019 to seek opinion about his “minor stress fracture” with Ashish Kaushik the head physiotherapist at the NCA.
After the WI series, Bumrahs comeback match finally arrived on January 7 against Sri Lanka where the first delivery he bowled went swinging down the leg side and Pant made a further mess of it by giving away an extra run. Jasprit Bumrah was back but this was a way rustier version of him, obviously after a long cricket less patch.
He finished with figures of 1-32 in his 4 overs, very contrasting to the Bumrah we know. Then he traveled with the team for the ongoing NewZealand series.
India whitewashed NewZealand in 5 matches T20 series with Bumrah showing signs of coming back to his self and chipping in with wickets.
He even bagged the Man of the Match in the final T20 for his economical spell of 3-12 in 4 overs. However, in the ODI series, NewZealand batsman counter-attacked him, Indian bowlers failed to make any impact resulting in a whitewash of 3-0 by Newzealand.
Bumrah went wicketless and couldn’t manage even a single wicket in the 30 overs he bowled in the series. Does this drip in form is natural soft stint after someone makes a comeback from the injury or batsman have figured out the ways to tackle him which are even counter-attacking him for boundaries.
Since in India cricket is a very emotional game, the fingers start to rise sooner than expected. One bad match and fans and media and critics will be all over you.
The cricketer in himself should not be affected by what being said outside the circle, but the talk starts to get you at some point in time and Bumrah has been under the radar for the very first time in his career.
The little blame goes to Indian cricket management too with everyone starting to praise cricketer with no boundaries. Bumrah has been exceptional with his bowling skills but the people in the Indian team have been too vocal about how he is like the greatest fast bowler India has ever seen.
The talk and all that praise is a confidence-booster in the starting but after some point, it tries to encircle you and try to put pressure on you, the pressure to perform consistenly.
Tim Southee in his recent interview said that Bumrah remains a world-class bowler, despite not being in the good form, the pace swing has been on point and such bowlers need one good day at the office to be back at it with a bang.
However critics suggest that they have still not seen any evidence of the ruthless Bumrah they know, the yorkers aren’t coming as they used to and the bouncers aren’t as spearheaded anymore.
If we try to analyze Jasprit Bumrah and look at his strength, he has a good bouncer as he can perfectly create that awkward angle to hit the batsman head at will, he has yorker but with his action, if the batsman runs towards him and show some fast hands, he can be tackled.
He has a good slow bowl and he has deceived the batsman number of times with the slow ball.
We remember one match in IPL when Kedar Jadhav was facing Jasprit Bumrah and Jadhav was playing him all around the park with ease. That was the first time, we saw Jasprit Bumrah little helpless as Jadhav was making a mockery of him.
The action which Jasprit Bumrah has can do wonder only if the speed is in access of 140 if his speed drops below 140, the same action which provides him with awkward bouncers and yorkers becomes relatively easy for the batsman to play as the bowl comes nicely on the bat.
Bumrah action needs the speed of 140+ as the bowl comes nicely on the bat and that is what happening with him now.
The slight drop of pace and not the same bull’s eye line length bowling has allowed batsman to get the better of him and that is the reason he is going wicketless after wicketless.
This has not only put a player like Jassi under the scanner but also serves as a blow to the esteem of a world-class bowler like him. Maybe these are just bad days or as you might say rough patches that do come in a player’s life. Maybe all he needs is to buckle up and start with a new edge to this new phase of his career.
We all know what a fighter Jasprit Bumrah is and it’s all worth the wait. One match, one 2-3 wicket haul is everything that will help him to get the rhythm back.
As Akash Chopra quotes, “sab ko karde gumraah, apna Jasprit Bumrah” we wish we get to see back the old Jasprit very soon with the same intensity in run-ups, his laser-guided missiles and toe crushing yorkers and the slow delivery. The last one is his best skill.
