How do I play this guy? It’s a thought that perhaps crosses the mind of every batter who faces Jasprit Bumrah. A writer experiences a similar quandary. What should I write about this guy? A student of mathematics uses limits to approximate an indeterminate reality. A writer has no such recourse. No linguistic flourishes can approximate the vastness of talent that is Bumrah. All attempts are futile and yet of great consequence since bowlers rarely receive the recognition they deserve in our cricket-crazy nation.
India has produced some of the greatest batters and spinners in the sport. In Kapil Dev, it produced a great fast-bowling all-rounder, and in MS Dhoni, one of the finest wicketkeeper-batters. But a truly magical fast bowler—someone who can rewrite record books, instill fear in batters the way Sachin Tendulkar did in bowlers, make every delivery gasp-inducing and every over momentous, and take 200 test wickets at the best average ever at that tally—forever eluded us. Some came close but no one crossed the finish line. Until Bumrah who has, in effect, completed Indian cricket.
Today, when we awake early to watch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in Australia, we find the soul of Indian cricket, long deprived of a world-beating fast bowler, finding utterance in Bumrah. And for him, chacha Nehru would have also fondly smiled and excused my appropriation of his iconic speech.
Era-defining bowler
It is tough to become a diehard fan after you have crossed your mid-20s. By then you have seen enough transitions and come to accept that a sport is always bigger than the individual. You have seen many greats play and retire. The fanaticism that characterised fondness for a specific player during pre-teenage and teenage years is left behind. You have learned to watch team sports not for an individual’s brilliance but for their celebration of collective spirit and excellence. The weight of the years gone by and the mundane pressures of life bog you down constantly and barely leave you time to think about one individual.
But then comes Bumrah, and you fall in love with a player after a long, long while. He doesn’t capture the imagination immediately the way a teenaged Tendulkar or Rafael Nadal may have. Initially, you experience a tinge of awe at the consistency and potency of the yorkers, and maybe also find yourself amused by the unusual action. He is a great limited-overs bowler, you think. Tough to hit during the death overs. Could be a good addition to the test line-up. But the best-ever fast-bowler from India? Even at a specific moment, best all-format globally à la Wasim Akram or Glenn McGrath? Come on! But Bumrah continues to evolve. Before you know it, he has transformed into all of these, and a lot more.
There have been five era-defining players in Indian cricket in the last 50-odd years—Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli—not solely for their individual brilliance and impact but also for how they captured the public imagination. Bumrah is the latest addition to this list but unfortunately not to the extent he should be, can be, must be. That reflects poorly on us and lends bare our myopic approach to sports.
At this moment, India should be crazy about Bumrah (along with D Gukesh and Neeraj Chopra), far more than it is. The euphoria that surrounded Tendulkar and Dhoni earlier, and Kohli today, but never extended to a Viswanathan Anand or a Ravichandran Ashwin needs to be replaced with one of another kind. That which isn’t tied solely to India’s past and present excellence in batting but encompasses the multiple sporting possibilities and excellences which lie ahead for a nation coming of age. We can be good, great, awesome, world-beaters across sports and categories—so why not both embrace and celebrate it.
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Legacy of brilliance
In a country of 1.4 billion, talent resides as much in nooks and corners as it does in sporting academies for five-year-olds. Finding it may or may not be difficult but refining it is. It’s possible that Bumrah, with his temperament and work ethic, may have become what he has become without the Indian Premier League (IPL). It’s also possible that he may have simply slipped through the cracks like countless others, or remained a shadow of his present version.
Market forces have a flair to them; they can scan through crevices for what they want and mould that to perfection. Former India coach John Wright identifying and signing up Bumrah for Mumbai Indians in the IPL was part happenstance, but part market determinism. Bumrah ran away with the opportunity, well that was…just Bumrah being Bumrah and his diligence. Even as India mourns the passing away of one of the architects of its market reforms, Manmohan Singh, it is celebrating the heroics of Bumrah in BGT. In a way, Bumrah’s brilliance is a tribute to the legacy of Singh, one of the best tributes there can be. Without 1991, there is no 2008. Without 2008, Bumrah may not have been this Bumrah.
It doesn’t matter where Bumrah goes from here, whether his bowling continues to scale new heights or gradually reveals its mortal side. The present peak itself is a thing of beauty that will bring joy to Indian fans forever. And for Bumrah, whose stuttering run-up is a form of poetry in motion, John Keats, whose life was intimately connected to cricket, wouldn’t mind my appropriation either.
The writer works with a leading global consulting firm. He tweets @mishraachyut. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)