A decade of Jasprit Bumrah sorcery: Unorthodox pacer set for full-circle moment against New Zealand in Raipur

RAIPUR: Cricket tragics, whatsapp uncles, millennials and zoomers often dissect India’s batting into a pre-Tendulkar and post-Tendulkar phase. And when one mentions Jasprit Bumrah, one suspects they will break down India’s pace bowling into a pre and post-Bumrah era.

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When the Gujarat pacer was first spotted taking the wicket of Virat Kohli in the IPL in 2013 on his debut despite being hit for three boundaries, everyone was amazed at his unorthodox action and the ability to deliver accurate yorkers at will. The doubting Thomases also questioned whether his action will be sustainable over a long period and whether he can play the longer format. But at every stage of his life, Bumrah kept defying the odds and continued to chase excellence and write his own destiny to slot himself among the all-time greats.




On Friday, the right-arm pacer will complete a decade in international cricket when he takes the field during the second T20I against New Zealand.

His international debut in the fifth ODI against Australia in Sydney on Jan 23, 2016 was full of drama.

Bumrah was actually part of the T20I team on that tour and was supposed to fly to Adelaide three days prior to the last ODI, but as the Indian board could not find him a flight seat, he stayed back in Sydney. Bumrah thought he would get to spend some time in the company of the seniors and sharpen his skills, but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he would be handed an ODI debut. But he was drafted in, in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who fractured his thumb. The spot could have gone to left-arm seamer Barinder Sran, who was in the original ODI squad, but skipper MS Dhoni decided to go with his hunch and hand the Gujarat pacer ODI Cap No. 210.

The chosen one did not disappoint and finished with figures of 2/40 from 10 overs, which included the dismissal of Aussie skipper Steve Smith, and since then he has never looked back. By the end of the T20 games, Dhoni called him the find of the tour.

After the Sydney ODI, Smith admitted that because of Bumrah’s nippy action, the deliveries came quicker onto the bat than one thought. That unusual action, with the release much closer to the batter than traditional bowlers, gives the batter no trigger to react and has bamboozled modern-day greats like Smith, AB de Villiers and Joe Root.

Bumrah has made an impact across formats, but it was the T20s that first brought him into the limelight during the IPL with Mumbai Indians with captain Rohit Sharma often using Bumrah’s four overs like a pensioner used his retirement corpus.

He did the same during the T20 World Cup in 2024 too, especially in the game vs Pakistan in New York where his 3/14 across four overs enabled India to pull off a heist and defend 119.

The defence of 30 off 30 balls vs South Africa with six wickets left in the final too became possible only because Rohit still had two overs of Bumrah up his sleeve and the GOAT bowled one of the balls of the tournament to castle Marco Jansen.

India will hope that he has an ace up his sleeve again when they set about defending their T20 World Cup title on home turf, starting with a group clash against USA at the Wankhede Stadium on Feb 7.

During the 2024 edition, he had an economy rate of 4.17, which was best among the bowlers who played five or more matches in the tournament. His career economy rate after 84 T20Is is 6.42, which is obscene for a bowler who bowls during all three phases—Powerplay, middle overs and the death.

The most important aspect of Bumrah is his presence in the playing XI and his ability to land telling blows. It has a calming influence on the bowling attack and settles the nerves of a skipper, which was missing during the recent ODI series defeat against New Zealand.

It’s hardly a wonder then that be it Dhoni, Kohli, Rohit or Surya, all looked in Bumrah’s direction when they needed a piece of magic. Rest assured, India will need his magic again as dew, not a factor in West Indies and USA in 2024, will be a huge one, come Feb and March and if Bumrah is on, rival teams often end up playing a 16-over match, instead of a T20 game.


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