Whipping up a storm: why Jasprit Bumrah is the most feared bowler at this World Cup
Indian quick Jasprit Bumrah enters the World Cup fray as the world’s top ranked bowler, with an awkward, whippy action allied with brutal pace that even the best international batsmen fear.
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Jasprit Bumrah arrives at this World Cup as the undisputed No. 1 one-day bowler on the planet.
Australian fans, who watched him rip Tim Paine’s side across four Tests last summer, would likely argue he’s the best bowler across any format.
The 25-year-old Bumrah, cast a spell over Australia from which Aaron Finch looked like he might never recover.
And yet just two years ago he was also the bowler whose costly no-ball in the Champions Trophy final gifted Fakhar Zaman an early life. One which the Pakistan star cashed in on to produce a sparkling, match-winning century as India’s trophy hopes fizzled away.
Further back than that, in some quarters at least, Bumrah was viewed as simply a novelty.
His awkward action and stunted run-up were at odds with what we’ve become accustomed to expect from the great fast bowlers.
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“When you think about Jasprit Bumrah, what he brings to the table with that awkward arm action — his front arm going out towards cover — it’s a different arm action,” Australian fast-bowling great Brett Lee explains.
“He’s got that late swing, that whippy action off three or four steps, [at least that’s] what it feels like.”
Even at its base level, the idea of an Indian fast bowler being the best in the world is something of a decidedly modern phenomenon.
But it is without question that Bumrah holds the keys to India’s World Cup campaign.
There is more to his story than that which has played out to an Australian audience in the past 18 months.
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As a 19-year-old he was plucked from obscurity to land an IPL contract that placed him alongside the likes of Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson, Lasith Malinga, Glenn Maxwell and the great Sachin Tendulkar.
2013 proved a formative year for young Bumrah, who was taken under the wing of Malinga as he refined what has now become the world’s most devastating yorker.
Because rather than be overawed by his multimillion-dollar teammates, Bumrah went about proving his worth to the superstar Mumbai Indians the only way he knew how — by bowling serious gas.
Specifically, so the tale goes, he chose to rattle the cage of Johnson — an idol of Bumrah’s who was mere months away from his crowning series as a player, the 2013-14 Ashes.
And while in that series Johnson took a staggering 37 wickets and sent shockwaves through the England camp with his fearsome bowling, on this occasion it was the mustachioed Australian who was rocked by some express pace.
With Johnson donning the pads, Bumrah seized his chance and sent down a fierce bouncer in the nets which nearly knocked the clean-hitting left-hander off his feet.
Bumrah’s attitude was simple: he wanted to show Johnson that he was able to bowl as fast as the great Australian.
Proving people wrong and a tireless work ethic are as much the foundation of Bumrah’s body of work as his yorker and bouncer.
As much as his desire to try and figure out and take down the opposition’s king pin each time — a trait which has seen him routinely bag big names as he introduces himself to new levels of cricket.
His first foray on Australian soil was in the last of a five-match ODI series, making his debut when the tourists had been humbled to the tune of four straight losses prior.
Not to be deterred in the face of a formidable team, Bumrah knocked over skipper Steve Smith en route to figures of 2-40 on debut as India turned the tables and finished with a victory.
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His first Test scalp? None other than South African batting wizard AB de Villiers, undone by a fuller delivery which nipped back and took an inside edge onto off stump.
De Villiers was the first at this level, but certainly not the last.
Bumrah even knocked over Virat Kohli for his first ever IPL dismissal.
Throughout the World Cup in England, Bumrah will take it upon himself to rattle the cage of the world’s best batsmen.
Is he the world’s best? Lee certainly puts him in the absolute elite bracket.
“There’s probably three or four guys where you think ‘he could definitely do the job’,” Lee suggested when asked to pin down the top dog of fast bowling right now.
“(Australia’s) Pat Cummins on his day can definitely be up there. Mitchell Starc, when he swings the ball, would be in the top few picks. But Bumrah would be up there as well, he’s been doing it for a number of years.
“Batsmen can win you a match but bowlers win you tournaments. Someone like him, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, they’ll be a huge threat in this World Cup when those two guys get it right.”
The world is on notice.
Originally published as Whipping up a storm: why Jasprit Bumrah is the most feared bowler at this World Cup
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