India’s Test captain Jasprit Bumrah fast-tracked for greatness

Indian great MS Dhoni marked out Jasprit Bumrah as a potential future captain before he’d even played a Test. The quirky fast bowler has proven more than up the challenge, growning into the most valuable commodity in Indian cricket.

Australian captain Pat Cummins and Indian captain Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the first Test in Perth.

I’ll never forget when I first heard someone speak about Jasprit Bumrah as a potential future captain. It came from a rather trusted voice in MS Dhoni.

It was on a two-week white-ball tour to Zimbabwe in June 2016. Bumrah’s international career was all of five months old and he was still 18 months away from playing his first Test. Dhoni had been picked to captain a rather young squad in three ODIs and three T20Is. And we were still only halfway through the 50-over matches when Dhoni pulled me aside with a classically astute observation.

It’ll also be fair to add that this was around the time I was scoping the legendary Indian captain for a biography I was writing on him. But before I could pose one of my many questions to him, Dhoni piped in.

“Keep an eye on this kid. He’ll be captaining India before long,” he said pointing at the raw fast bowler from Gujarat, who at this point was still known mainly for his extremely freakish action more than his freakish exploits with the ball. If it hadn’t come from Dhoni, I might have taken it as just a word of encouragement from a senior player to a journalist about one of the newcomers. But there was no embellishment here. Dhoni meant it, and he explained why as soon as he spotted my perplexed face.

“I’ll give you a very simple example. Every time I go up to him to inform him about a fielding change, he has already thought of it and doesn’t even wait for me to bring it up. He’s three steps ahead of the game. Imagine, he’s only a few months into making his debut. Captain in the making.”

“White-ball captain?” I asked.

“All formats,” he said with a chuckle.

Wow. How right he was. Only six years on from this prediction, Bumrah was captaining India in a Test at Edgbaston. As he will in Perth from Friday. With Rohit Sharma yet to arrive in the country following the birth of his son, India’s premier fast bowler will lead India for the second time in his Test career. But it’s unlikely to be the last.

Jasprit Bumrah has turned into the most valuable commodity in Indian cricket, on and off the pitch. Photo: AFP

With Rohit now 37, and in the final few chapters of his career, India will soon be looking for a long-term Test captain, and Bumrah is very likely to be the man. Even if there will be some competition from the likes of Shubman Gill or even Rishabh Pant.

That Bumrah was chosen ahead of those two and very categorically too is both a sign of how much his stocks have grown within Indian cricket. And also that of a cultural change in how India is no longer a batting-centric nation, in terms of those who get both celebrated and venerated.

What Dhoni had noticed way back when in his young fast bowler hasn’t gone unnoticed over the last few years as Bumrah has grown into the most valuable commodity in Indian cricket. Both on and off the field. Not just with regards to becoming the most potent all-format fast bowler in the world but also the leadership role he’s played at some crucial moments in the biggest games.

Bumrah is best known for his unique bowling style. Photo: AFP

Whether it’s in some of his Test spells on Australian soil, when India have won here, or even as recently as the T20 World Cup final in Barbados.

Everyone from R Ashwin, on his YouTube show, to Virat Kohli in front of a packed Wankhede Stadium crowd, which had gathered to celebrate India’s World Cup win, have been on record of late, talking about how Bumrah is the most-valued cricketer in the country currently. Ashwin even compared him to the Kohinoor diamond. Only a couple of weeks ago, reports from the Mumbai Indians franchise suggest that both Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya accepted a bit of a pay-cut to ensure that Bumrah is retained by the IPL franchise for the highest fee. But while India is eager to put Bumrah on a pedestal, and rightly so, he reciprocates with never tiring to put his body and every bit of his spirit on the line, every time he dons the Indian jersey.

Along with the eagerness he has to put his hand up when his team needs the most in many ways is characteristic of his eagerness to be playing the sport he loves. It’s unmistakable. You see it on the field, when he’s at the top of the mark with ball in hand. Or even if he’s wielding his willow with a free-spirit, which he has started doing a lot more of late.

And it shone through in his first press conference in Australia as Test captain on the eve of the Test. It was infectious. It started with him jokingly placing his phone alongside the dozens of other phones that were placed on the table in front of him. “I may as well, if everybody else has,” you could hear him mumble with a shy smile.

That smile only grew bigger though when asked about what it meant to him to captain India in a Test.

“I don’t look at it as a post. I look at it as a responsibility. As a child, I always wanted to play this format and leading India in Test cricket, very few number of players have played Test cricket for India and captains are even less,” he said, his words being fired out a rapid rate much like the booming in-swingers he’ll deliver to the Aussies over the next few weeks

“There is no greater honour than this. So, I’m very privileged, and very happy to be in this position,” he’d then sign off, still smiling, still excited, still eager.

Bumrah would also highlight the tactical nous that those of his ilk, including rave reviews for his counterpart, Pat Cummins, aren’t always given credit for, and why he believed there should be more of them being handed the reins around the world. But he’d underplay the suggestion that he might well stay on as captain, even once Rohit does land on these shores. Even if it only seems very obvious that the Bumrah captaincy era cannot be too far away. And I don’t even need Dhoni this time to let me in on that.