6/45: Bumrah’s pitch-perfect swing gives the English the blues

Jasprit Bumrah in action during the second day of the second Test against England, in Visakhapatnam on Feb. 3, 2024. (PTI Photo)

On placid Indian pitches, it is tough for medium-pacers to take wickets. But not if you are a Kapil Dev or Jasprit Bumrah. The legendary Kapil took more than half his 434 Test wickets in India, with his out-swingers and in-swingers.

Bumrah is going that way, and perhaps a notch higher, using the reverse swing to great effect. While Kapil Dev took a wicket every nine overs in India, Bumrah has taken one every five overs. While Kapil averaged 26.49 runs for every Test wicket picked up in India, at 12.8, Bumrah's average is less than half of that.

Though the Indian team is packed with ace spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav for this series against England, it is Bumrah who has taken a majority of the wickets, with 12 already in the bag from three innings, six of them on Saturday alone (February 3).

“I want to focus on what I can do. Today  was a good day, I got six wickets. But that is not going to happen every other day. When I come to bowl, I think of how I can make things difficult for the opposition. I search for answers. On some days things don’t work . But when they do, it makes you more confident,” said Bumrah

Bumrah’s 6/45 on Saturday is his best at home (in Tests), where he is playing his sixth match after 17 Tests abroad. Bumrah was responsible for India gaining a 143-run first innings lead on Saturday in Visakhapatnam. He was used in spells of four overs after the initial two two-over spells were fruitless.

As the ball began to get older, the Englishmen found Bumrah unplayable. This was reflected in the manner in which Ben Stokes gestured (as if saying ``How is one to play that?’’) after being bowled by a good-length ball, which kept a shade low, straightened while the England skipper expected it to swing away,  and disturbed his off-stump. Bumrah denied the dangerous Stokes the half-century, dismissing him for 47.

Bumrah bowled dream spells and was the only Indian bowler who looked like he was going to take a wicket every time he came in to bowl. With this, Bumrah has clocked two five-wicket plus hauls in Tests in India, and 10  in 34 Tests, and moved past the 150-wicket mark. He is the second fastest to reach this milestone among Asian pacers, after Pakistan’s Waqar Younis (27 Tests).

It is no surprise that Bumrah is among wickets. While his wicket-taking abilities abroad are legendary, where he himself says there is something for the seamers (unlike in India), he has become a force to reckon with at home too. His reverse swing, his toe-crushing deliveries are some of the weapons that Indian skippers rely on. Besides, of course, his conventional swing.

Bumrah’s three wicket-taking spells were brilliant. In the first of them — a brilliant 4-2-3-2 — he removed Joe Root and Ollie Pope in successive overs. Root, with the ball moving away in the direction of the shine, edged to first slip Shubman Gill at 5, and Pope, the hero of the first Test in Hyderabad last week, did not have any clue about the reverse-swinging yorker that was delivered at nearly 142 kmph, and was bowled for 23.

Bumrah was back in the attack immediately on resumption of play after tea, and took Jonny Bairstow in a spell of 4-2-9-1. Bairstow pushed at a delivery that was running away from him to give Gill another catch at first slip.

Bumrah’s last spell — 3.5-0-9-3 — was even more outstanding. He removed Stokes as well as the tailenders, numbers 9 and 10, Tom Hartley and James Anderson, making the former nick to slips, and trapping the latter leg-before.

England opener and top-scorer Zak Crawley, who saw off Bumrah in the initial spells, spoke highly of him. With India enjoying a lead of 171 with all 10 second innings wickets in hand at the end of play on day 2, he said: “Bumrah bowled unbelievably well. It was a fantastic spell in these conditions. The reverse swing at that pace was a little hard to play. He mixed it up well.”

Bumrah has said that he learnt the reverse swing before learning the conventional swings because he felt that was the best weapon to take wickets in India.

This is Bumrah’s fourth six-wicket haul, and whenever he has taken six wickets in a Test innings, India has won that match. So this magical spell could bring the Indian team back from the 28-run defeat in the first Test to level the series in the next couple of days.