Jasprit Bumrah is the sort of bowler India had been searching for long. Someone who is hard to read and distinctly different from the rest, carries with him a definite threat to the batsmen, can both contain and strike and be a game changer.
Bumrah has his own methods, is an impact bowler and a match-winner. Given his influence on the course of matches, it’s not surprising that he now is the joint No. 1 ranked ODI bowler in ICC rankings, sharing the space with mercurial Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan.
Just look at Bumrah bowl. For a paceman who loads the ball up so much away from his body, his arm is remarkably straight and high at the point of release. He then has such a whippy, quick-arm action, bowling from wide off the crease, that the batsmen often struggle to pick his deliveries.
Mixing it up
If the batsmen get on to the front foot, they have to reckon with deliveries that climb into them from short of a good length. And once they are pushed back, he often nails them with sizzling yorkers, that can swing in or move away to hit the off. He gets the new ball to lift and straighten, reverses the old.
Add to all this, his change of pace and a variety of slower deliveries such as the knuckle ball and the off-spinner and Bumrah is a complete package. Crucially, Bumrah has the confidence to deliver these balls at critical stages.
And this has been a breakout season for Bumrah, one in which he has made strides in red ball cricket to. Bumrah’s selection in the Test team in South Africa was questioned by some, but the lanky Baroda lad struck telling blows in the series.
White Lightning’s praise
So much so that South African pace legend Allan Donald said to The Hindu during the series, “The guy who is making all the noise is Bumrah. I am impressed with him. He is quick, accurate and does things with the ball.”
Bumrah entered the Tests with an open mind, “You need to adapt. I never go by perceptions,” he said then. And he harried the batsmen by both bowling cross-seam and getting the ball to skid or by achieving disconcerting lift.
He does need to work on his consistency over longer spells in red ball cricket. With the white sphere though, he is right there among the very best.
