Jasprit Bumrah: One of a Kind

Back in March 2022, after the shocking news of the death of Shane Warne, I posted a blog about the great Australian entitled “The Greatest Of Our Time”. That seemed to me to be a perfectly accurate and defensible title, backed up, if need be by Wisden’s authoritative choice, in 2000, of the Five Cricketers Of The Century: Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman, Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, and Warne.

Personally I would not quibble with that Five, and the voting, the structure of which need not detain us here, was very clear. Warne’s status was somehow enhanced by the fact that he was only halfway through his career, having made his debut in 1991-92. There is only one overlap between the Five. Hobbs was still playing when Bradman made his debut in the Ashes series of 1928-29; the Englishman retired at the end of the 1930 series, by which time he was 47. That alone is enough to tell you how the notion of a cricketing generation has changed between now and, say, the era before the Second World War. Bradman himself played on after that war and retired in 1948 at the age of 40. Not many Australian players since then have gone on so long. People like Neil Harvey and Alan Davidson had to retire in their early thirties to make some money; Richie Benaud was lucky enough to find a job in cricket. Even in the lucrative modern era, Usman Khawaja was an exception, soldiering on till 39. England was always different, as the professional game encouraged gnarled old pro’s to go on forever. A clear indication of how things have changed was when Alastair Cook retired, as England’s highest run-scorer, at the age of 33. James Anderson really was the exception that proves the rule. The rest of the world, including the subcontinent, has tended to be more like Australia than England. The longevity of Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni is again exceptional.

I said Warne was the greatest of “our time” rather than the greatest of his generation. Clearly the former includes the latter. I am not sure whether I meant “my time”, or the time of my readers whether younger or older. But I did mean more than a generation.

By definition the Wisden Five are all outstandingly great cricketers.  But Bradman and Warne were on another level. They were literally once in a lifetime players. No explanation is required. This is a case of what the lawyers call res ipsa loquitur: the thing speaks for itself.

This is a long-winded introduction to wondering whether Jasprit Bumrah is in the same category of the transcendentally gifted.

With Bradman, the numbers are what made the difference. Bumrah’s are certainly impressive. In 52 Tests – the same number as Bradman – he has taken 234 wickets at an average of 19.79. No bowler of any sort or of any era has taken more than 189 wickets (England’s Sydney Barnes) at an average of under 20. Bumrah’s strike rate of 42.8 is bettered only by Kaguso Rabada among bowlers with more than 200 Test wickets.

These numbers are remarkable, especially the career average. Australians may point out that Scott Boland’s average is even lower but it is not a fair comparison. Boland has only played 19 Tests, and 69 of his 82 Test wickets have been taken in Australia. Oddly enough Bumrah too has taken more wickets in Australia than anywhere else, 64 at an average of 17.15, as opposed to 62 at 17.70 in India and 51 at 21.69 in England. In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series of 2024-25 he took 33 wickets at an average of 13.06. Five visiting bowlers have equalled or bettered that number: Maurice Tate, Barnes, Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose and Harold Larwood. Only Hadlee had a better average. The remarkable thing though was the strike rate of 28.37. The next best in that list of glittering names was Hadlee with 30.81. In the home series against England in 2023-24 he took 19 wickets in four Tests at an average of 16.89.

As for white ball cricket, it almost goes without saying that he is the best bowler in the world. His strengths are best exhibited in T20. The general rule is that any side can win a T20 contest. In the international context Nepal and Italy have some batters who can hand out a good thrashing to a regular bowling attack. But an attack with Bumrah in it is not a regular attack, particularly in a game that really matters. This could be clearly seen in the second semi-final of the recent T20 World Cup between England and India at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. India made 253 for seven, and England responded with 246 for seven, losing by seven runs. (I agreed with Simon Mann’s analysis that it was the “closest unclose game ever”. The average run rate for both sides was 11 or 12. Bumrah, who did not open the bowling, conceded 33 runs in his four overs.  The England batters just wanted to get through those overs without too much damage being done. That can make a vital difference to how an innings develops. India have won the last two T20 World Cups; Bumrah was the leading wicket taker in both. He is the fifth highest wicket taker in the IPL, which was where he first made an impact.

But of course it is not all about the numbers.

Everyone agrees that fast bowlers provide a special spectacle for spectators, often generated just by speed. Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Allan Donald, Dale Steyn and Michael Holding are good examples. For me, the most exhilarating were the Australians Jeff Thomson and Mitchell Johnson.

 Bumrah is not quite the same as them. He is fast but not consistently express; speed is only part of his armoury. Yet he provides the drama of the fastest bowlers. When he is bowling you can’t take your eyes off him. That is what makes one think of Warne when considering Bumrah.

His run up has the same dramatic quality as Warne’s. Like the great leg-spinner he begins with a few walking paces, and then quickly accelerates. The run up is not long – eleven paces – but it gathers speed; initially jerky, almost stuttering, making it peculiarly difficult for batters to know what to expect. The last few steps are faster and smoother, very upright,  with his arms held out in front of him as though bearing a precarious tray, or like a supplicant taking part in some strange high speed ritual. There is a great preparatory leap and the final delivery stride. His arm speed is very fast and the hyper-extension of his elbow and unusually late delivery point mean that he poses unique challenges to batters.

He has a formidable array of weapons. Pace is one thing; he is also a master of the slower ball. He moves the ball both ways and has a vicious yorker. Bumrah is always “at” the batter. His remarkable consistency and accuracy means that he is very difficult to score off as well as being a formidable strike bowler. Again, very similar to Warne.

Bumrah is more feared, or at least worried about, in the world. There really is nobody like him. That is very clear from the way opposing teams approach him, as manifested in the World T20 semi-final. Experienced and talented batters treat him with almost exaggerated respect. Novices are simply out of their depth. In the Border –  Gavaskar Trophy series of 2024-25, Australia selected debutant Nathan McSweeney to open in the first three Tests. Bumrah dismissed him four times in five completed innings, three times for single figures.  This is what made the events of the morning of Boxing Day 2024 in Melbourne so extraordinary. Australia’s selectors relieved McSweeney of his burden and replaced him with a younger debutant, 19 year old Sam Konstas. Taking the first over from Bumrah in front of a packed house at the MCG Konstas was beaten four times by Bumrah in that first over before abandoning the conventional approach and attempting to ramp Bumrah. After eleven overs Konstas had made 45 off 44 balls and in his last three overs Bumrah had gone for 34 runs, an unheard of experience for him. Virat Kohli was more nonplussed than him, behaving like the schoolboy bully and brushing Konstas’ shoulder, “accidentally on purpose” as Wisden put it as they crossed at the end of an over. Bumrah had the last laugh in that he dismissed Konstas for eight in the second innings, and took nine wickets in the match, though Australia won the game, and then series. The Konstas episode reminded me of Derek Shackleton, the great Hampshire medium – originally medium-fast bowler of the 1950s and 60s. I am of course not saying that “Shack” was anything like Bumrah. But he bowled with remarkable control and accuracy and was notoriously hard to get away. Occasionally, however, a batter would come along who was prepared to try something unorthodox – someone like Fred Trueman – and Shack might take some punishment. The extraordinary thing about the Konstas incident is precisely that it was so unusual in the sense that the unorthodox is becoming more normal – famously even Joe Root will try the odd ramp. Very few batters have succeeded in belting Bumrah out of the attack. He suffered like everyone when Root and Jonny Bairstow won the extraordinary Edgbaston Test of 2022, putting on an unbeaten 269 for the fourth wicket. (Bumrah, captain for that match, hit Stuart Broad for 29 in one over in India’s first innings.)

Bumrah is 32 now. He only played in three of the five Tests in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series in 2025, taking fourteen wickets. He looks robust enough but like all ace fast bowlers he needs to be “managed”. Doubtless, he will focus even more completely in series against Australia and England when it comes to five-day cricket. I don’t think we can expect to see Bumrah signing up for a season of county cricket but even I have to admit it would be great to see him playing in The Hundred. He is that special.