Speed, seam, swing, swag… the elements that make India’s trio of Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah the most devastating pace-bowling firm in the WC

The swagger is unmistakable. They don’t need to depend on marketing personnel to create hype. They can just announce “come watch India bowl”, and the fans will come in droves. They had shot out Sri Lanka for 50 in the Asia Cup final; they gave away just five runs more on Thursday.

This was after Indian batsmen had brought the house down. Shubman Gill (92), Virat Kohli (88) and Shreyas Iyer (82) seemed set for hundreds, but missed. But that didn’t matter, with India winning by 302 runs — the fourth-highest ODI victory margin ever. It was another Indian triumph — 7 from 7 games, making the home team the first to book a semi-final slot.

Some of the older followers of Indian cricket may be unprepared for this all-new cricketing experience. There were faces of disbelief in the stands, not sure how to take it all in. It seemed too good to be true.

Nerves may jangle before the semi-finals, but even there, the fretting is likely to be more about the law of averages catching up rather than cricketing implosion.

Mumbai’s Wankhede crowd certainly lapped it all up, in the company of Sachin Tendulkar. The morning had begun with them chanting “Sacheen, Sacheen”, as he walked up to place the glittering trophy for their eyes. The evening would progress with full-throated gasps and joyous cries as Indian bowlers blew away the neighbours.

 

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At one point during the dramatic denouement, the cameras caught Tendulkar sitting with former teammate Ajit Agarkar, who is the current chief selector. Tendulkar was mimicking a bouncy delivery, his fingers dramatically whipping the ball down, the kind of stuff children do while bowling imaginary balls as they go about their daily lives. And the crowd oohed and aahed when they caught the visuals on the big screen.

Tendulkar has played with Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, but had never shared the dressing room with a bowling unit quite like this.

Harbhajan Singh too has been in dressing rooms with Srinath, Nehra and Zaheer, he too has seen serious pace from close quarters. But Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami have blown him away. “I have never seen an Indian pace bowling unit like this. All of them bowling at 140 kph. They have speed, swing and seam. It’s a luxury. We used to say Pakistan produces pacers, now it’s India,” he said.

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The intimidation of this Indian pace unit is enticingly cerebral and skillful. It is similar to the West Indian greats. Michael Holding had once told The Indian Express: “They thought all we needed to do was run up and bowl fast or short or whatever. That’s what irks me the most. I tell them to go check the scorebook: how many were LBW, bowled, caught in slips or whatever. It’s as if they don’t want to credit our thinking. I have never seen more intelligent and craftier bowlers as Andy (Roberts) and Malcolm (Marshall).”

 

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Indians won’t face such dismissive stereotypes; their skills are being talked about and will continue to be discussed for years to come. Bumrah’s first delivery was proof enough. The front arm, as ever, extended way ahead than other bowlers and at an inward-angle, pushing the ball in, towards Sri Lankan opener Pathum Nissanka.

Understandably, the angle and the trajectory made Nissanka prepare himself for an incoming delivery. But he missed the trickery of Bumrah’s fingers. It darted away, leaving Nissanka in an awkward tangle. Opened up, squared up, he was a silent witness as the ball trapped him in front.

Siraj’s first delivery was a ripsnorter. The left-handed Dimuth Karunaratne clearly wasn’t prepared for the wizardry right away. The full length and the late inward movement rendered him immobile, and he was a frozen duck as the ball pinged his pads.

Since his rise as India’s top pacer, Shami – who became India’s most successful bowler in World Cup history on Thursday — has made children across India act like tailors, raving about the shiny thread that seams up the ball together. Shami’s fourth wicket, which ended Sri Lanka’s lone resistance in Angelo Mathews, was worth watching on loop. It was a full-blooded curling inswinger that whooshed past like a wave to rattle the stumps.

 

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Siraj summed up his fast-bowling colleague’s skill nicely: “Shami bhai ki baat mat karo … woh toh legend hai… unko neend se uthao toh bhi line or length pe dalenge… hum beat kar rahe hain aur woh aake punja nikal diye (Don’t talk about Shami bhai. He is a legend. Wake him up from his sleep and he will still bowl the perfect line and length. We were just beating the batsmen and he grabbed five wickets).”

Captain Rohit Sharma put their performance concisely: “Back-to-back performances show what the seamers are capable of, they move the ball both ways. When there is something from the pitch, they are quite lethal.”

Bottle the bowling unit’s skill, sprinkle the batting audaciousness on it, and sell it as the Great Indian Swag, the biggest box-office hit going around the country.