Bowling superstar Bumrah set to play first Test on home soil today

NEW DELHI: It has been a long while since the promise of Jasprit Bumrah — first witnessed on the big stage during the Indian Premier League in 2013 — came good at the international level. And when it did, Bumrah’s presence even managed to catalyse the rise of a fast-bowling nation. While it is altogether remarkable that Bumrah, just 17 matches and three years old in Test cricket, is the spearhead of possibly the best pace attack in the world in such a short space of time, it is just as sensational that he is yet to play a Test in India. Either injured or rested for each of the eight Tests that India have played in their backyard since he made his long-form debut in 2018, Bumrah will not only get to play at home for the first time — today in Chennai — but also at his home ground of Motera in Ahmedabad (which will host the third and fourth Tests), if he can remain injury-free. He is, after all, returning from an abdominal strain that ruled him out of the final Test of the Australia series in Brisbane last month. Bumrah, who has 79 Test wickets at 21.97, was the last member of India’s bowling attack to limp out of the Australia series, which forced India’s inexperienced standbys to not only feature at the Gabba, but punch well above their weight to win the match and the series Down Under. But now most of the frontliners are back in the squad for the England series —

Ishant Sharma (who missed all of Australia), Bumrah and spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja (both injured after Sydney) named for the first two Tests in Chennai. But it is the return of Bumrah that has most excited captain Virat Kohli. “Jassi (Bumrah) is someone who will be very keen to start off at our home conditions as well, because he understands these pitches very, very well. His skillset will be very handy on this pitch,” the Indian skipper said on Thursday. Kohli believes that it was on England’s previous tour of India, back in 2016, when pace became India’s primary weapon, one that would go on to help India win not one but two Test series in Australia. “The last time around when we played England at home, our pacers outbowled their pacers, which, if you ask me, was the beginning of the dominance of this fast bowling group,” he said. That dominance was only sharpened by the inclusion of Bumrah two years later, whose trademark toe-crushers have so far struck fear in the hearts of Test batsmen only outside of India. That is set to change on Friday.