“In my head, growing up, I was never unorthodox,” says Jasprit Bumrah from his home in Ahmedabad. Time with loved ones is a precious commodity for India’s galácticos, but their champion fast bowler has spared some for a chat before Thursday’s highly anticipated first Test against England.
“It wasn’t until I joined a national junior camp and saw a video of myself [that I saw I was different],” the 30-year-old continues. “I was just bowling fast and taking wickets, it never occurred to me. Now it’s my strength. It may have gotten jumbled up from watching lots of different bowlers on television but I’ve been fortunate: no coach has ever tried to change me.”
The temptation here is to describe Bumrah as one-in-a-million but when it comes to India, a few noughts can probably be tacked on to the end. Although the truth is, there really is no other quick like him in world cricket; nothing that compares to the seam and swing lashed down by one of the most unique actions in the sport.
Side on, it’s a thrilling spectacle, Bumrah cantering in, winding up like a trebuchet, and positively exploding at the crease. The elbow hyperextends, the wrist snaps, and the ball leaves the fingertips six inches to a foot nearer the batter than most. Front on it comes from anywhere between 10 and two on the clock face. In a sport of angles and split-second reactions, he asks more questions than a hyperactive toddler.
A good few batters may wish the coaches had tinkered, such has been Bumrah’s rise to become arguably the best three-format exponent around; owner of elite numbers, frontman for a generational Indian pace battery and vice-captain to Rohit Sharma. It all began on a sofa in Gujarat’s most populous city, with Bumrah, raised by his mother, Daljit, utterly transfixed by the sport on his screen and one facet in particular.
“I don’t know the switch that turned me on to fast bowling but it has always been fast bowling,” he says. “I was never interested in high scoring games, or batsmen scoring big runs, hitting fours and sixes. And there wasn’t a particular hero. It could be left arm, right, it didn’t matter … I’d just copy whoever was the hero of the week.”
It’s here where the question is asked about the skirting boards; whether the story about the birth of his laser-guided yorker is as accurate as the ball itself. “It’s the truth,” replies Bumrah. “Summers in India can be really hot in the afternoon and parents don’t let kids out. I was a hyperactive kid, lots of energy, but my mother would sleep in the afternoon.
“Then I found that if I bowled a ball into the skirting board, it didn’t make a sound. So I could bowl without disturbing her, no issues. I did not imagine at the time it would develop into a yorker, I really didn’t know what one was.”
The skill first transferred into the frenetic world of tape-ball cricket, where Bumrah says detonation of the stumps was his “only aim”, and then into the setup of the Gujarat Cricket Association. Had he not progressed through the ranks, Bumrah says, there was a plan to move to Canada, where an uncle lived, and complete his education.
But there is no doubt as to the day that truly ignited his career; the day New Zealander John Wright, working for Mumbai Indians, travelled to Gujarat in 2013 to watch Axar Patel play a T20, only to spot a remarkable sling-shot of a fast bowler among the opposition and convince the franchise his signature was essential. “I was just a happy accident,” says Bumrah, now a poster boy of the Indian Premier League.
To Test cricket, both the looming reunion with England – a side against whom he boasts 41 wickets – and its future. Given Bumrah’s all-format success, be it five IPL titles or his centrality to India’s white-ball sides, does this very modern cricketer have a preference?
“I am of that generation where Test cricket is king,” he replies. “I will always judge myself on it. Yes I started with IPL but I learned to bowl through first-class cricket; that’s where I developed my skill, the art of taking wickets. In Test cricket you have to get the batsman out and that challenges you as a bowler.
“T20s, ODIs, some days you might send down five slower balls and get five guys out, when in a Test match they wouldn’t have taken one. There is no luck in Test cricket, the better team wins, you cannot take 20 wickets through luck. I was never happy with just white-ball cricket and Test cricket is still the utmost format for me.
“I don’t know how the youngsters look at it. But Test cricket has been around this long, it will find a way. Every format has its place – too much Test cricket would be boring, too much white ball the same. I think [the sport needs] a little bit of everything, rather than an overdose of one format or the other.”
How, then, does he view Bazball, the ultra-positive approach that England will almost certainly bring to the table over the next seven weeks? “I don’t really relate to the term Bazball,” he says. “But they are playing successful cricket and the aggressive route of taking the opposition on, showing the world there’s another way to play Test cricket.
“As a bowler, what I think is that it keeps me in play. And if they’re going for it, playing so fast, they won’t tire me out, I could get heaps [of wickets]. I always think about how I can use things to my advantage. Kudos to them but, as a bowler, you’re in the game.”
Bumrah has met England once since their reboot under Ben Stokes and carved out a small chunk of history himself, ransacking 29 runs off a Stuart Broad over that went for 35 in total. It makes for an unlikely record holder – Brian Lara’s 28 the figure eclipsed here – even if the tailender is no rabbit. “I always remind the batters that if they need some advice on playing the pull shot, they know where to come,” Bumrah says, laughing.
Though India lost, that 2022 Edgbaston Test was personally special for Bumrah, stepping up to lead his country after Sharma caught Covid-19. Given the success Pat Cummins has had as a rare seam-bowling captain of Australia, is succeeding the 36-year-old Sharma a long-term ambition?
“I did one game and it was the utmost honour,” replies Bumrah. “Playing Test cricket is great, captaining was even better. Yes, we lost but we were ahead in the match and I loved the responsibility. Sometimes as a fast bowler you go down to fine leg and switch off but I loved being involved in every decision, right in the thick of things.
“And given the opportunity, of course, who wouldn’t? [Cummins] plays for Australia, the number of matches differs and that kind of thing. Not many [seamers] have done it before. But it’s a good example that yes, fast bowlers are the smart ones, they do a hard job and they know what to do around the game.”
That mention of Cummins and his success brings us on to the World Cup final last November, a night that saw Australia break the hearts of a nation. Bumrah, returning from a lower back stress fracture, had been utterly flying during the tournament, he and Mohammed Shami tearing through lineups like crepe paper. That was until the final gut-punching twist in front of 92,000 fans in his native Ahmedabad.
He says: “I was at home, we’d won every game … you can’t just say it’s part of the game. It hurt. And it should hurt; we worked very hard, played good cricket. It’s not ideal but that’s the job, you have to move on … in six months there’s another [T20] World Cup. Some days, the big days, it’s meant to be and it will happen. You can’t get to the final if you’re not that good. It did hurt for a few days.”
It was notable in the aftermath how Bumrah, though shell-shocked, was still smiling and chiefly trying to console his teammates. It is a very Bumrah thing, smiling in the face of adversity, taking pleasure in the toil. Beyond his sublime skills and the match-winning bursts, it’s one of the reasons supporters from all countries love watching his cricket.
“That is all self-taught,” Bumrah explains. “As a fast bowler who learned through watching television, I thought that you had to get angry, you had to have a word with the batsman … and when I started playing junior cricket, I was that guy.
“But in trying to do those antics, I realised that’s not me, that’s not helping me focus on the job in hand. I had to channel my anger because I am a fast bowler, I do get angry. I don’t want to get hit; I’m not here to entertain or give throwdowns, I want wickets, I am here to make you uncomfortable. But I don’t want to lose my shape or my zone.
“Playing for India was my dream and when I get tired, I always remind myself of this. That’s where the smile is from. A cricket career is limited, I won’t be doing it forever. I keep talking to myself and keep trying to enjoy it, because it means a lot to me.”
Not that the red mist doesn’t still surface. During the 2021 tour of England, a series lit up by his stunning reverse swing burst at the Oval, there was the notorious 10-ball over roughing up Jimmy Anderson at Lord’s, a bowler for whom he has nothing but admiration – even if it sparked a war of words in the Long Room.
“I was tired, I thought the last wicket was there, I tried to push to bowl fast,” he explains. “I went up to him [mid-over], asked: ‘Are you OK?’ and didn’t get a good response. So that brought back some young memories; trying to be the nice guy and it not being taken well. And it triggered the whole team. It was red mist but it was channelled. Fighting and playing is second nature to us; controlling that is self-taught.
“A lot of credit to [Anderson], I can genuinely say I’ve been watching him since I was a child. It’s credit to him [he is still playing at 41], a testament to his hunger and passion. It’s one thing having helpful conditions but to keep doing all that preparation. Skill, technique can be learned but the will to keep going, that’s a big, big tick for me.”
Before wrapping up, Bumrah set to leave the young family that he says has changed his perspective on life, and join the India squad in Hyderabad, I ask if we could see him still unfurling that spellbinding action 10 years from now. “I hope so,” he replies. “I don’t look too far ahead. But I know for sure wherever I am, I will be happy.”
