India’s pace ace ready to burst IPL myth at home
MUMBAI: It has taken 37 months since his introduction to Test cricket in Cape Town, bursting deliveries at 140 kph, for Jasprit Bumrah to play his first Test in India. Injuries or workload management has delayed the pace ace’s home initiation. All this while, he has been globe-trotting—twice to Australia, once to England, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies, becoming India’s most dependable fast bowler.
With every IPL, Bumrah reinforces his T20 credentials. But he relishes breaking batsmen’s confidence with the red ball more. His pet peeve is being called an IPL find. “That I made it to the Indian team by my performances in the IPL is a myth,” he told Yuvraj Singh in an Insta chat during lockdown. “2013 is when I came into IPL. Then (in) 2013, 2014, 2015 I was not playing regularly. I did well in Vijay Hazare (one-dayers) and in domestic circuit (Ranji Trophy) then I came into the Indian team in 2016.”
None knows it better than his former Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel, who had suggested to his then RCB skipper Virat Kohli to bid for Bumrah in the auction, before Mumbai Indians made him their own. Bumrah was instrumental in Gujarat’s maiden Ranji win in 2016-17, taking 24 wickets in seven matches. The evolved version of Bumrah today needs no validation that he can be a potent force at home too. Numbers of the last three years tell a story.
Indian wicket takers at home have been well spread out between spin (74) and seam (80)—52.5% wickets taken by Indian quicks at home (Jan 2018Feb ’21) were bowled and lbw. During the same period in the away Tests Bumrah has featured in (17), 34.70% fast bowlers’ wickets were hitting the stumps, 31% were caught behind. Yet, Bumrah’s propensity to target the stumps even outside Asia mean half of his wickets (39 of 79) were bowled or lbw, making him a potent bowler even in Indian conditions. His returns at an average of 21.59 compare with the best. “Bumrah is going to be even more threatening in India, where wickets can get low and slow and he can reverse the ball really well,” Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports.
The visitors are unlikely to have come unprepared for Bumrah despite all the spin talk. “He’s quite a hard man to prepare for, isn’t he?,” opener Rory Burns said. “We’ll just be working on those angles as best as we can.”