Since his international comeback in August after back surgery, Jasprit Bumrah has made it a habit of striking early. It’s a trend that’s spilled over into the ODI World Cup. Last Sunday in Chennai, he dismissed Mitchell Marsh with his eighth ball; it took him 22 deliveries to reprise that feat on Wednesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi - his victim: Ibrahim Zadran, the Afghanistan opener.
In that little passage of play before the right-hander’s dismissal, it was clear that bowlers of all hues had their work cut out on a batting beauty, that they had to use their brain as much as their craft to effect breakthroughs. As if to corroborate, Bumrah put his index finger and middle finger to his right temple immediately after KL Rahul moved to his right to snaffle Ibrahim’s outside edge. Some likened it to the trademark celebration of Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford upon scoring a goal, but Bumrah brushed that aside, insisting, “I just felt like it, so I did it.”
For all the unquestioned bag of bowling skills at his disposal, Bumrah is laconic when you put him behind a mic. You can sense his mind ticking furiously as he listens intently to a question, as if being put under a searching examination, and then offers a dead-batted, non-headline-making reply that has forced many to label him ‘boring’ at press conferences. Maybe so, but Bumrah is anything but boring when he has the ball in his right hand.
Bumrah is unconventional, unorthodox and unusual, but he is mighty effective. Even after seven-and-a-half years as an international cricketer, he doesn’t cease to wow when he walks a few paces, gathers himself and breaks into a sprint that only ends when a braced right knee and a hyperextended right hand work in confluence to propel the tiny cricket ball at great speed at the batsman.
For India to stand a realistic shot at making a pitch for the World Cup, it was imperative for Bumrah to recover in time from the surgery that became inevitable once all other options had been explored, unsuccessfully. His rehabilitation was handled with great care, the dangers of rushing him back into action taken into consideration, and by the time he fronted up against Ireland in a T20 series in August, he was back to being Boom Boom, the real deal.
Gradually, Bumrah has re-emerged as destroyer of the past, his ready smile still very much in place, his skills undiminished but burnished further through hours of hard yards at practice. Any lingering residual rust was dusted off at the Asia Cup in Colombo last month; when India faced off against Australia in Chennai, Bumrah was as ready for battle as anyone else, physically and mentally.
Ibrahim’s eviction on Wednesday bore a striking resemblance to the manner in which he got rid of Marsh in Chennai – a ball that landed in the corridor and hung tantalizingly, not full enough to drive, not wide enough to ignore. Drawn magnetically towards the ball, both right-handers hung their bat out a touch and were caught off the outside edge, Marsh at slip and Ibrahim by the wicketkeeper. The plan was simple in its conception, outstanding in its execution. Expect more of the same in the next six weeks.
The Jaitley stadium strip would test Bumrah’s mettle, as it would that of the others. Here more than anywhere else, discipline and patience were the need of the hour. There was no sideways movement, no swing through the air, no grip on pitching, no two-paced nature, no uneven bounce. Batsmen could free their arms and hit through the line, and since the boundaries weren’t the longest, even mishits would sail comfortably over. India needed their bowling talisman to step up, and Bumrah didn’t disappoint.
In three spells at various stages of the innings, he was impeccable control-wise. In an encounter that produced 53 fours, 15 sixes and 545 runs in 35 overs, Bumrah finished with extraordinary figures of four for 39 from 10 overs, conceding just five fours despite bowling the difficult overs. There were pinpoint yorkers that the batsmen just about kept out, and subtle changes of pace that brooked careful watching. It made for compelling viewing, captivating a big crowd that appreciated the nuances of 50-over cricket. Boring? Certainly not.
Wednesday’s figures are Bumrah’s best in all World Cups, but when he says that is immaterial, you believe him entirely. By his own admission, he is a little ‘detached’, so he doesn’t pay attention to such mundane details as wickets taken and strike-rates and economy rates. It’s not that he doesn’t want to take wickets, but for him, the value of those strikes is related to whether they have helped the team to its logical goal. They did on Wednesday and he will be hoping for more of those in the remaining games, starting with the big one against Pakistan in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
That will be the first time Bumrah will be playing a One-Day International in the city of his birth. He has played one Test match at the Narendra Modi Stadium, against England in February 2021, but this will be something else – a World Cup clash against India’s fiercest rivals, and given the clamour to extend India’s 7-0 record in the competition against the team that resembles them the most when it comes to style of play. Bumrah will be charged up, but he won’t be overawed.
Bumrah’s immediate focus is the reunion with his doting mother; the match could come later. “I've been away for a while now, I'll be happy to see my mother at home,” he smiles. “That's the first basic thing for me. As for playing at home, I have not played a One-Day International there. The atmosphere is going to be exciting, I'm sure a lot of people are going to come. It will be a sight to see.”
A sight like Bumrah at the bowling crease, maybe? Exciting and electric and full of possibilities, the lynchpin hoping to extend his early good form of the World Cup. Up against him will be the likes of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, among others. ‘Boring’ Bumrah will keep coming at them, ball after searching ball, over after unyielding over.
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