‘This guy’s a joke.’
England pacer Ollie Robinson’s words surmising Jasprit Bumrah’s ‘crazy’ Yorker that flattened Ollie Pope during India’s 4-1 Test series win earlier this year weren’t an exception reserved only for that particular delivery. It was a brief and accurate summation of generational talent, at the peak of his powers, who repeatedly threw the pitch out of the equation.
Having arrived as a skinny boy with a ‘weird action’ that demanded immediate attention, Bumrah has climbed, nay, skipped rungs with warp speed to, arguably, become the world’s best fast bowler.
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It’s almost as if Bumrah carries his own pitch to every venue he’s bowling at and returns scarcely believable figures to put his peers to shame.
‘Bumrah didn’t do me any favours by bowling like a genius’ – Mark Wood.
The England express pacer had no hesitation in accepting the superiority of his rival after the Hyderabad Test. To Wood’s match figures of 0/62 from 25 overs, Bumrah had 6/69 from 24.4 overs to show for, and that too on a pitch where a spinner had taken a seven-for in an innings.
A similar story is unfolding in the ongoing IPL 2024, where batters have been putting the bowlers to the sword with surreal ease. Twenty-two teams have already scored a 200-plus total across 84 innings. Four times RCB’s 263/5, a record that remained the highest team total for a decade, has been broken already, and there are still 33 matches to go in the season.
The entertainment quotient that boundaries are capable of delivering has taken precedence.
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Bowlers are running for cover. Mitchell Starc, the most expensive bowler ever signed at an IPL auction, has an economy of 11.48 after seven games. RCB mainstay Mohammed Siraj has been leaking runs at 9.63. Delhi Capitals’ Anrich Nortje is having a nightmare, too.
There have been a few exceptions. Trent Boult (7.46) and Matheesha Pathirana (7.6) have a sub-eight economy among the fast bowlers to have delivered at least 20 overs.
And then, there’s an exception among exceptions.
Bumrah. The 30-year-old has sent down 32 overs in eight games and picked up 13 wickets to be the joint-third-highest leading wicket-taker. But his economy of 6.37 makes him a cut above the rest.
With the Mumbai Indians recovering from their poor start to the season, Bumrah remains central to their hopes of a top-four finish.
No wonder Tim David feels the franchise is ‘lucky’ to have him in their ranks.
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“Of course, Bumrah has a unique action that makes him difficult to pick up, but he bowls fast, he swings the ball when it’s new, and then he nails yorkers, bowls a hard-to-pick slow ball, so that’s a pretty enticing package,” David said while replying to a CricketNext query in Delhi on Friday.
“He (Bumrah) plays all three formats as well. So we’re very lucky to have him in our team, and sometimes when you have players who are the best in the world but who are so good at their craft you let them do their thing, they can take on any role the team needs at that point,” he added.
MI’s road to the playoffs will be tough, and not just because they are currently eighth on the points table. After DC, in their remaining five matches, the five-time champions will face three of the current top-four teams in the standings.
Without question, they have to be at the top of their game, and Bumrah, in the midst of what should be a memorable season, will be vital to securing that playoff spot.
MI will be up against DC on Saturday, a team on a resurgence of its own, having won three of their last four games. The first meeting between the two teams produced a high-scoring affair, which MI won. And every bowler who bowled four overs had an economy of at least 8.5, barring Bumrah, who stunningly conceded just 22 runs from his four and took a couple of wickets, too.
“We’ve been relying on Boom (Bumrah) a lot this season and we’re going to keep relying on him that’s obviously why you have the world-class amazing players. To sum that up, we’re very lucky to have him in our team it’s more fun than facing him in a match and let’s hope he has some bigger performances,” David said.
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