‘It’s just all awkward’: Why Bumrah is Australia’s worst nightmare

Jasprit Bumrah destroyed Australia in the first Test in Perth, ripping out 8-72 and virtually deciding the game in a single spell on the first evening.

Among his proudest moments in that spell was knocking over Steve Smith lbw first ball with a classic nip-backer. Before the series, Smith spoke about why Bumrah had become arguably the world’s toughest bowler to face.

Jasprit Bumrah’s unique bowling action has confounded many international batters.Credit: Getty Images

“From the start of his run-up it’s just all awkward,” Smith told this masthead. “The way he runs in is different to pretty much anyone else, then the last bit of his action is different. I’ve faced him a reasonable amount now, and each time you face him it takes a few balls just to get the rhythm of it in a way.

“He releases the ball closer to you than any other bowler, just the way he does it. So maybe it rushes you a bit more than you think, and it’s just an awkward action. Put that together with his skill set, he swings it both ways, he can nip it off the seam, he can reverse it, got a good slower ball, a good bouncer, he’s pretty much the complete package as a bowler.”

Set out below, with help from Seven and SEN commentator and noted bowling coach Damien Fleming, are the five phases of a Bumrah delivery, from the time he is at the top of his mark to the moment of collision with the batter.

Contemplation

Bumrah is very instinct-driven as a bowler. He will analyse footage and data with coaches, but in the middle he will use the scenario and opponent in front of him to decide what to bowl next. Fleming says this is aided by his build-up of such a vast repertoire of skills since his 2016 international debut.

“He’s just the Terminator isn’t he,” Fleming says. “He knows his strengths and he’s always sniffing to find that weakness. I think he does that instinctively, and it’s not a long run-up, but I can see he’s reviewed that ball and then he’s planning the next one.

“There’s that famous dismissal of Shaun Marsh [at the MCG in 2018] in the over before lunch. I was commentating at the time, and I could almost pick what was going to happen, just driving him back, so his weight’s on the back foot, and then he bowls that superb slower ball and knocks him over. It was either going to be that slower ball or a fast yorker. So I think he is so astute, but he also now has all the skills.

“Outswingers, inswingers, off cutters, slower balls, excellent yorker, bouncer. So when you’ve got more skills, you’ve got more options. Like the Terminator he’s always stalking the batsmen. And the batsmen know that, but they’re still unsure what’s coming. Not only does he have a wide skill set, but he executes it better than anyone in world cricket.”

More shuffle than run-up

Bumrah’s sleight of hand starts with his run-up, which until its last couple of steps is a stuttering, shuffling approach that scrambles a batter’s long-established expectations about what a fast bowler looks like.

“His run-up goes the opposite of what we generally teach,” Fleming says. “Around 60 per cent of your speed comes from your run-up, and you’ve got to get real momentum towards the crease. It’s like the build-up of a train, and good speed momentum towards the target, then the extra 40 per cent would be through your action.

“I’d be guessing that Bumrah’s more like 30 per cent from his run-up and 70 per cent from his action. When I halved my run-up I felt like I got a little bit quicker, but you create a perception from the batter that you won’t be that quick. When you faced Brett Lee, Waqar Younis or Shoaib Akhtar sprinting in at you, there’s something innate preparing you that this is going to be quick and that helps you play the ball.

Jasprit Bumrah loads up.Credit: Getty Images

“But when you face Wasim Akram, Jeff Thomson or Bumrah, nothing prepares you for the pace that’s coming because the run-up is short. Thommo increased his run-up speed later in his career and wishes that he hadn’t because it didn’t transfer to extra ball speed. Bumrah creates an optical illusion there.”

That illusion is shattered, however, in the last couple of steps as Bumrah gets ready to explode through the crease.

“His last step before his take-off step, pre-stride, two steps out then he goes bang. For all the stuttering, two steps before his take-off step he builds massive momentum, and then his take-off is powerful and to the target,” Fleming says. “For all the mess, he does build massive momentum.

“Studies have shown that the great batsmen pick up pre-ball cues before release. But bowlers like Bumrah, Thommo, Devon Malcolm – even where you lose sight of the ball and there’s body parts all over the place like Lasith Malinga – you’re not getting those cues. And that’s for great batsmen, so what about a young kid, or the tail.”

Full force: The braced front leg

When Bumrah first emerged in the Indian academy system, experts such as bowling coach Bharat Arun puzzled over what they had. On one hand, Bumrah’s action made him extremely hard to pick up, but on the other it appeared to put far too much strain on his back.

“His action was unique and the batsman who played him said that they found it difficult to pick his bowling,” Arun has said. “So when someone has such unique ability, changing him is not going to guarantee that he would do better.

“So we did a meeting with the strength and conditioning coach and the physio to study his action and know what could be the effects of such an action. We concluded that it would put tremendous pressure on his back. So one thing was that if he had to continue with that action he had to work on his physical aspect and make his body very strong.”

Jasprit Bumrah lands his front leg.Credit: Cricket Australia via Getty Images

More than a decade later and Bumrah has proven durable enough to keep slamming down a braced front leg to generate a catapult effect through his body. At the same time, his bowling arm flies out towards square leg for a right-hander – more distraction from the usual cues.

“Ideally as a bowler you do have a braced front leg, but it’s hard to teach,” Fleming says. “There’s a lot of force going through that front leg when it’s braced, 10 or 11 times your body weight, and this is where he gets his pace from. It helps create a catapult effect.

“If you were going to flick a rubber band and you want it to go as far as possible, you’re going to stretch it with a straight index finger to maximise the distance and the tension. If you bend that, it’s not going to go as far.

“Bumrah creates so much elasticity, and a lot of it is to do with the braced front leg and a high release. He probably maximises it more than I’ve ever seen. What doesn’t help visually is his arm going out straight and towards square leg. You’re looking at that as a batter – he’s got body parts that are almost putting batters off the scent, but from that braced front leg he’s in a great position.”

Hyperextension – not throwing

For decades, the purity of a bowling action was assessed by the umpire’s naked eye at square leg. But biomechanical studies in the early 2000s showed that there was actually no such thing as a “pure” bowling action: all bowlers bent and straightened their elbows to varying degrees.

“A lot of comments on my YouTube video for Bumrah will just say ‘chucker’, but anyone who has a slingshot-type action, they hyperextend to a big degree,” Fleming says. “Back in the day it was the umpire at square leg who made that call, but how can you do that with the naked eye?

“Then they did those studies and over 50 per cent of quicks had flex of more than 10 degrees. The other thing those studies cleared up is that no one is zero degrees. Everyone straightens their arm to a certain degree. But hyperextension is just something you’re born with.”

In 2024, Bumrah’s hyperextension is understood as a natural gift, having the practical effect of delivering the ball more than 30 centimetres closer to the batter than most contemporaries.

Jasprit Bumrah hyperextends.Credit: Cricket Australia via Getty Images

An exception is Australia’s captain Pat Cummins, who delivers from about 20cm closer than usual. Fleming believes this advantage is the best explanation for anecdotal complaints that some bowlers deliver a “heavy ball” that hits the batter harder than expected.

“His hyperextension is as drastic as I’ve seen,” Fleming says of Bumrah. “Most fast bowlers do hypertextend to a degree, and sometimes the quicker they are the more they have it. Hyperextension is different to throwing because it is an involuntary action – I don’t think you can coach it. But it adds to that catapult effect, more stretch to generate force.

“I was astounded when we first looked at that, and a lot of the bowlers were six or seven centimetres in front of the crease. Pat Cummins is about 20cm, so the ball hits the bat and the batter looks a bit shocked. So for Bumrah the pitch is 32cm shorter. When people say someone ‘bowls a heavy ball’ and no one can really explain it, is that because they bowl from further in front of the crease?”

Making the batter look silly

The final bit of Bumrah’s action is the snap of his wrist, which provides the vital last bit of direction and momentum for the ball. With subtle changes in that wrist action, Bumrah can make a last-second decision as to whether he bowls an away-swinger, a nip-backer, a full ball or a short one.

Jasprit Bumrah gets Nathan McSweeney for a duck.Credit: Getty Images

Because of all the delays and distractions in his action, batters speak often of thinking most balls will be short because their eyes are trained to expect the full ball to be released earlier from the hand. The combination of optical illusion and skill execution explains why Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and debutant Nathan McSweeney looked so clueless against Bumrah in Perth.

“The last effect is his wrist flexion,” Fleming says. “That’s also as extreme as I’ve ever seen. So you think the ball is going to be bowled, but it still hasn’t left the hand because his wrist has to come through. He gets pace there too.

“All this delayed stuff you’re waiting for, the ball doesn’t come, and then it does and you’re shocked with how quickly it gets there. The other thing about his wrist is that he can make a really late decision about what he’s going to bowl because of subtle changes in wrist position.

The Perth Test was not the first time Jasprit Bumrah has had the better of Australia’s batters.Credit: Cricket Australia via Getty Images

“So he’s the magician in that sense because the ball is a rabbit out of the hat. Batsmen no longer in the Australian team who faced him a fair bit will say they never felt they were in a rhythm against him. So it was game on and a bit of hope. What a win that is, when the batter is just hoping to pick up the ball.”

How, then, can the Australian batters cope better with Bumrah in Adelaide? Fleming argues that they simply must find ways to score against him and put some doubt in his mind. In Perth, they were sitting ducks.

“If I was talking to Marnus I’d be going ‘just try to win each ball’,” Fleming says.

“When you’re bowling to a purely defensive batsman who is waiting for the bad ball, your corridor of uncertainty is so wide. You don’t have to be perfect.

“Then eventually you think ‘he’s not hurting me, I’ll bowl a good enough ball over time to get him out’.”

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