SANJAY MANJREKAR JREKAR

It’s such a batsman’s game this. If it wasn’t, Jasprit Bumrah would have been one of the biggest stars of Indian cricket. Like Virat Kohli is with the bat, Bumrah has now become a game changer with the ball in all three formats of the game. When we all saw him for the first time, we thought, okay, here’s a bowler that Mumbai Indians have picked for his very different action.

It helps to have an unusual delivery action in T20s when batsmen are looking to tonk you for a six every ball. It just puts the batsmen off a little bit, that’s enough to make a difference between a ball sailing into the stands for a six or getting bowled trying to slog one over midwicket. It’s for this reason bowlers with unorthodox actions rule in T20s and IPL cricket.

It didn’t take long for us to realise that there was more to Bumrah than just his strange bowling action. What started to come through from his performances was the fact that this guy had a great range as a seam bowler. There is nothing Bumrah can’t do. He can bowl quickly at 145 kph, if needed, he can swing the ball in the air or seam it off the pitch and, he is comfortable bowl- ing full or short or on good length too. Bumrah can bowl a mean bouncer and follow it up with a spearing yorker and he does all this with great control with that awkward action of his, an action that’s not prescribed in any coaching manual of the world. Shows there isn’t one copybook way to achieve excellence.

I asked him the other night when he won the MOM award in that ‘do-or-die’ game versus Kings XI Punjab what he thinks is his greater strength, his skills or his temperament — his calmness under pressure. He picked the mind over matter. Bumrah said his clarity is his greatest asset. One needs to be very clear about