 "Perfectionist Jasprit Bumrah makes seemingly docile MCG track come breathtakingly alive on Day 4")
As his colleagues trooped towards the privacy of the dressing room, Jasprit Bumrah stood alone, next to the pitch, his upper body bent, his hands resting on his knees, spent and tired and a little frustrated. He held that pose for a long, long time, until KL Rahul walked up to him, patted him on the back and urged him to leave the sprawling outfield of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It ought to have been a Sunday of celebration and delight for the premier bowler in the world, and it was for the most part, but it ended in bitter disappointment. It must have been particularly galling for Bumrah that that disappointment stemmed from an unforced error, a no-ball, a cardinal sin in Test cricket at any time but especially when it denied him a fifth wicket of the innings and extended India’s misery by allowing the pesky last-wicket pair of Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland to live to fight another day .
In the last over of Day Four, Jasprit Bumrah thought he taken the final wicket.
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 29, 2024
But it was called a no-ball. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Yc9kjO3bVc
Bumrah is a perfectionist, a relentless pursuer of excellence. He sets high standards for himself and therefore had reason to berate himself, but when he finally calms down after an ice-bath and whatever other recovery tools are at the disposal of modern-day professional sportspersons, he will come to the realisation that he must allow himself a pat on the back, however grudgingly and reluctantly.
On Saturday evening too, Bumrah had taken a million minutes dragging himself off the ground, aware that he had let a young man playing his fourth Test down badly. Nitish Kumar Reddy had made his way to 99 and Bumrah was tasked with keeping out an entire over from Pat Cummins so that Nitish could get back on strike and keep his tryst with a maiden three-figure knock. He only survived three balls and might have been mighty relieved that Mohammed Siraj allowed the Andhra lad to get to hundred .
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Channeling that inner angst and determined to pay Sam Konstas back in the same coin for the humiliation the youngster heaped on him in the first innings, Bumrah was charged up at the start of Australia’s second innings. The teenaged opener had scooped and reverse-scooped Bumrah with utter disrespect; Bumrah gave him neither the fullness of length nor the width required to play those strokes, eventually accounting for him with a screamer that jagged back, sneaked through the gate and hit middle.
Bumrah’s celebrations reprised Konstas’ efforts to gee the crowd up. Clearly, he had been nettled. This was payback time.
12 minutes of mayhem at the ‘G’
That was only the precursor, as it turned out, before the real show, which came in a sensational 12-minute period in the afternoon session. Armed with a lead of 105, Australia were carefully building on it by reaching 80 for two when Siraj provided India the breakthrough, having Steve Smith caught behind to a loose drive. It was the cue for Bumrah to return to the bowling crease for a crack at Travis Head, India’s nemesis for a while now.
In the first innings, Bumrah had cleaned up Head’s off-stump. This time, again from round the stumps, he got the ball to climb just enough for the batter to go on the hop and try to clip to leg. The left-hander couldn’t keep the ball down, finding Nitish placed beautifully just in front of and to the right of the square-leg umpire. Bumrah roared for two reasons – the bogeyman was back in the pavilion. More significantly, Head had become Bumrah’s 200th Test victim , in the pacer’s 44th outing.
In the history of Test cricket, 12 other pacers have got to the milestone faster in terms of the number of Tests. Four others have taken fewer deliveries than Bumrah’s 8,484 balls to get to that landmark. But there is one special feat that Bumrah has accomplished which is unprecedented in Test history. He became the first bowler to average less than 20 at the time of taking his 200th wicket. Bumrah had conceded only 3,912 runs when Head was dismissed, giving him the extraordinary average of 19.56. The one with the least previous average was West Indian giant Joel Garner, whose 4,067 runs conceded at the point of getting his 200th Test scalp translated to an average of 20.33.
How does one even begin to quantify Bumrah’s accomplishment? As recently as a half-dozen years back, who would have ever imagined that an Indian fast bowler would be stacking up these extraordinary numbers? And they are extraordinary numbers, even if they really can’t tell the full Bumrah tale because for all the glorious numbers that he boasts, Bumrah is a lot, lot more than just cold stats.
Reducing accomplished batters to nervous, indecisive wrecks
Ask the Australian batters, if you wish. Already this series, Bumrah has picked up 29 wickets. He has temporarily ended one career, sending rookie opener Nathan McSweeney out of circulation after three Tests. It’s likely that he will relegate Mitchell Marsh to the sidelines too, after accounting for him in the same over as Head with a lifter that kept following the batter and kissed its glove on its way to Rishabh Pant.
If you thought that was as good as it got, Bumrah got a 36th-over ball to misbehave in his next over, cutting it back a mile to get past Alex Carey’s defences and crash into middle stump. Carey has been one of Australia’s more impactful batters in the series, but the left-hander was nonplussed that through the sheer mastery over his craft, Bumrah had made a seemingly docile track come breathtakingly alive. It was gripping, compelling drama, watching a master at the absolute top of his game reducing accomplished batters to nervous, indecisive wrecks.
#JaspritBumrah proving why he's the game-changer!
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 29, 2024
Travis Head ✅
Mitchell Marsh ✅
Alex carey ✅#AUSvINDOnStar 👉 4th Test, Day 5, MON 30 DEC, 4:30 AM pic.twitter.com/FPmkZqQ4LN
Bumrah’s third spell read 3-1-4-3, amply doing justice to the hold he had over the Australian batters. That he was able to stack up this burst on a reasonably flat track despite having so many miles in his legs over the first three and a half Tests is a tribute to his fitness, to his stamina. The sight of Bumrah turning up at mandatory net sessions but not always bowling isn’t unusual. Few bowlers know their bowling at a micro-level as well as the smiling assassin from Gujarat does, and his teammates might be secretly happy that their already frayed confidence isn’t further dented after a dose of Bumrah at nets.
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Bumrah on his haunches isn’t a good look. After all, he is the one who drives the batters to their haunches, who triggers despair and agony and anguish in the best. Sunday evening at the MCG was an aberration, but only because Bumrah expects more of himself.
Salud, Jasprit Bumrah, the pride and joy of Indian fast bowling. Now, and forever.
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