Before putting Bumrah through 10 in the Asia Cup, it will be determined whether he can reliably bowl four overs per game in the T20 series against Ireland.
A distant video of Jasprit Bumrah bowling at Bangalore’s National Cricket Academy leaked a few weeks ago. The fans’ rejoicing and celebrations spread like wildfire. It was difficult to tell much about Bumrah’s bowling from that distance—if the motion was the same, whether the non-bowling arm was up at all, whether the tempo was good—but there was enough to make fans drool with anticipation. Then, more recently, a video of Bumrah bowling to KL Rahul appeared, this time recorded from a distance with a voice even asking, “Is it Bumrah?” Another wave of relief followed. Such have been the difficulties in Indian cricket’s post-Bumrah era.
A quick review of India’s T20I series loss to the West Indies reveals that the home team was only required to contain the spin danger of Kuldeep Yadav and occasionally Yuzvendra Chahal while bolstering the attack’s weakest link, the pace bowling element.
Nobody was expecting Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar to rip through even a flimsy batting lineup like the West Indies, but they didn’t disappoint with their efforts.
The home team easily won the series on Sunday by passing a total of 165 with two overs remaining for the loss of just two wickets. Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King only needed to make sure Kuldeep didn’t get any runs as the chinaman bowler finished with figures of 0/18 from his four overs. In their combined three overs of bowling, Mukesh and Arshdeep let up 30 runs while only picking up one wicket. Even though India’s skipper Hardik Pandya appeared to be the most promising wicket-taker for much of the T20I series, he wouldn’t see himself as the pace attack’s leader.
The imminent comebacks of Prasidh Krishna and Jasprit Bumrah during the next T20I series against Ireland assume significance in this context. The outcome of the three games is all but certain, and in the grand scheme of things, it would be little more than a footnote. Less than seven weeks remain until the 50-over World Cup, so fans will be considerably more interested in how Prasidh and Bumrah respond to the burden.
The bench strength of India’s fast bowling, which was the envy of the cricketing world not too long ago, was abruptly exposed as Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj were wrapped in cotton wool prior to the major event and Bumrah and Prasidh were out due to injury. Avesh Khan and Shivam Mavi, for example, still lack experience, and the selectors don’t appear to have faith in Umesh Yadav to handle the white ball. In terms of Jaydev Unadkat, he has the left-armer’s angle advantage and a tonne of experience, but is unlikely to keep good batsmen up at night.
Because the World Cup is being held in India, better playing conditions are anticipated for spinners, but a bowler of Bumrah’s calibre doesn’t require a conducive surface or overheads to be effective. It is crucial that the fast bowling unit is functioning well because India has recently struggled on spin-friendly surfaces (on the recent tour of the Caribbean and the ODI series finale against Australia in Chennai, to name two examples).
If Bumrah has fully recovered from his back issue and is healthy and performing at his peak, his pace, distinctive bowling action, nous, and cunning provide the Indian assault a distinct advantage. When Bumrah, Shami, Siraj, Kuldeep, and Ravindra Jadeja are on the bowling team in October and November, Indian fans will be inspired to dream big.
However, Indian selectors have in the past erred by bringing back Bumrah too soon following an injury. The pace spearhead was sidelined for nearly a year due to the rush before the T20 World Cup in Australia last year. Because of this, the wise folks are waiting to see if he can bowl four overs without incident in a game before considering whether to allow him to bowl 10 in the Asia Cup and the home ODI series against Australia before the World Cup.
Even Prasidh is highly regarded by the Indian team management and selectors for his ability to generate bounce from a length, and even if he is unable to make the starting XI, he will be a valuable backup option if he returns to his pre-injury form.
Since KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer’s health status is unknown and India’s middle order is still uncertain with little time left before the major event, it may be up to the Indian bowling to keep their campaign afloat. It will be expected that a healthy Bumrah will make early breakthroughs, pick up wickets in the middle overs, and also limit scoring in the final overs. Along with the Jadeja-Kuldeep duo, his partnership with Shami was a joy for fans of cricket and may be crucial to how far the hosts can advance.
Shami frequently depends on his Test-match abilities and pays little attention to variety or a change in pace, even in T20 cricket, whereas Bumrah appears to have no bounds to what he can do with the ball. He has no trouble with yorkers, slower balls, bouncers, or cutters.
While the hosts still appear to be in the evaluation phase, the majority of other teams are beginning to take their final forms for the World Cup. However, they will give Bumrah as much time as they can before making a decision, that much is certain. He is very important to their chances.
