To reduce the art of Jasprit Bumrah to his hyper-extended release is a great disservice to his main tool: his brain. The uniqueness of his body has been done to death; itâs time to zoom in on his brain.
Michael Holding once said how the cricketing world talked similarly about the pacers of the great West Indies team that he played in. âIt was as if they thought all we needed to do was run up and bowl fast or short or whatever. Thatâs what irks me the most. I tell them to go check the scorebook: how many were LBW, bowled, caught in slips or whatever. Itâs as if they donât want to credit our thinking. I have never seen more intelligent and crafty bowlers like Andy (Roberts) or Malcolm (Marshall),â Holding once told this newspaper.
Bumrahâs brain took centerstage at Perth, as it has done all around the world. The mistakes committed by the Australian bowlers would show the contrast.
India’s captain Jasprit Bumrah collects the ball as he prepares to bowl on the second day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth. (AP)
At the start of the second innings, admitted by their head coach Andrew McDonald as well, the Australians were a touch short with the new ball. The variable bounce hadnât kicked in yet and the shortness of length allowed Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul to settle in. Later in the day, even when the pitch had begun to wear and tear, the Aussies had bowled full, allowing the Indian batsmen to take a stride forward to negate the unpredictability of the surface.
âI see the trend of what is working on that particular day if I am bowling second. I am looking at the opposition team: what they did right and what they didn’t do right. I try to learn from that,â Bumrah had said in the past.
He certainly had watched the Australians and went the other way on Sunday evening. He assessed that the danger ball on this pitch was the one that skids in from back of a length. The balls hadnât yet started to kick up alarmingly.
Delivering the new ball at pace was the way to go. Wasting the first spell was criminal. Once the ball goes soft, it helps batsmen make late adjustments.
Bumrah’s plan was simple: Bowl back of length, target the stumps and use the occasional straightener to test the outside edge. The uncertainty in the Australian top order helped.
Debutant Nathan Sweeney, a middle-order batsman promoted ahead of domestic openers, struggled and made the wrong decision to go back, which proved fatal. The pacy skidder kept low, sneaking in to beat the bat and the opener was out LBW.
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, right, leaves the field after losing his wicket as India’s captain Jasprit Bumrah celebrates with teammates on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)
Marnus Labuschagne’s form should concern Australia. He has almost stopped moving towards the ball – his sole aim is survival. In his good days, the hands might get him out of trouble, with the bat coming in time ahead of the pad. But without the intent to meet the ball with any conviction, his defensive game doesnât stand much chance.
Bumrah didnât take long to suss that out and had the ball cutting in sharply from outside off-stump. Labuschagne should have known what was coming. Bumrah rarely starts the ball from that line and takes it away or lets it go straight.
The bat had to be somewhere in line in case it came in. But Labuschagne shouldered arms as the ball rammed into his pad.
On Monday too, when no one else could remove Travis Head, who was just 11 short of an aggressive hundred, Bumrah brought himself on. Soon came the straightner from round the stumps that Head tried to force off the back foot, but the angle ensured it took the outside edge.
Turning magic into science
The reason the world’s best batsmen struggle against Bumrah isn’t just his unusual action. It’s his cricketing intelligence, and element of deception, that make him, what Wasim Akram keeps repeating, the world’s best bowler.
Bumrah’s arm can be tilted inwards, but the wrist can be cocked outward – almost as if they are two disjoint parts in that limb. The ball can then come in the air, forcing the batsman to play before he finds out that itâs a straightener. By then, it’s too late and it takes the edge or misses the bat and rams into the pad.
To a lesser degree, Andrew Flintoff in his pomp had that wrist-sorcery. He would almost swivel his wrist at the last instant and get the ball to dart in sharply or straighten.
Because of Bumrahâs wrist angle and finger-work, not many batsmen are able to read how much the inward movement will be. Thatâs why batsmen, warily peering through the helmet grill, getting the bat in line, delay the final confident push to meet the ball.
And his assessment of what to bowl can be devastatingly accurate. Bumrah can make seemingly strange choices like a slower ball at the start of a spell, or show admirable patience in slipping a yorker to ensure its surprise is intact.
Those are essentially magic balls. But Bumrah turns them into functional tools. To know what to bowl and when to bowl is perhaps the greatest trait a bowler can have. Add to that the ability to bowl that particular delivery.
Bumrah has all the three traits, brain and body has rarely synced so effectively. Itâs not just the twisted arm or the extension, Bumrahâs real magic is his scientific brain.
India's captain Jasprit Bumrah gestures as he prepares to bowl on the fourth day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia. (AP) 
India’s captain Jasprit Bumrah collects the ball as he prepares to bowl on the second day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth. (AP)
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, right, leaves the field after losing his wicket as India’s captain 
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