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Follow Us“I travel in worlds you can't even imagine! You can't conceive of what I'm capable of! I'm so far beyond you! I'm like a god in human clothing! Lighting bolts shoot from my fingertips!”
A delusion of grandeur is crucial to maintaining the Lala land of our minds. That’s how human beings possess a semblance of control over what is an essentially unfair world. Sports writers, especially the ones who write on Test cricket, are even more proclivous to being swayed by the idea of grandeur, as they desperately seek ways to juice up their analysis.
But sometimes, one player rises above and beyond the realms of human imagination and pulls off something so spectacular that you start relating to the aforementioned dialogue from Better Call Saul at an emotional level.
Jasprit Bumrah did something similar after his team was bowled out for just 150 in two sessions, having decided to bat first. But before discussing that, try putting yourself in his shoes for a second.
Bumrah was captaining a team that had just suffered the worst-ever Test defeat in its own backyard against a team whose quality was nowhere near the best in the world. Moreover, as a fast bowling captain, he had a lot to prove. The biggest argument made against pace bowling captains is that their primary skill is so tough and consuming that captaincy would take a back seat. Last time he captained India, the team lost the Test and the series as England chased down 378 in the fourth innings.
There was baggage, and a lot of it if you think about it.
So what does Bumrah do? What new trick does the most inevitable man in cricket at the moment pull out this time?
He becomes a fast bowling god and outbowls not only every single other bowler on the field, but also some of the best spells the land of Lillees and Thompsons has ever seen.
It all started with the debutant Nathan McSweeney in the third over of the Australian innings. Bumrah properly set up the middle-order batter, who has been made to masquerade as an opener, by bowling a delivery that comes in from over-the-wicket angle and passes through. Disciplined, but hardly dangerous.
However, the next ball was an absolute jaffa, as it pitched on roughly the same length, came in just slightly more from the angle, but jagged back in sharply after falling on the seam. McSweeney’s bat was no where near his pad, and there was no way he would have been able to anticipate such exaggerated movement. His debut was over before he could even get his eye in.
Bumrah turned up the gear even higher against the much more experienced Usman Khawaja. The setup was even more nuanced. Poor Khawaja could only fend haplessly at the deliveries that first came in and seamed out from over the wicket, then came in again and followed the angle. The death blow was delivered on a ball pitching on almost the same length and line as the one before, but straightening just enough to take the edge.
Bumrah is an absolute master of that angle against the left-handers and averages just 15 against the southpaws (five less than his normal bowling average of 20). He was almost unplayable on a pitch where the ball seamed much more than any other pitch on average (based on ball tracking data).
If you don’t believe me, ask Steve Smith. The best Test batter after Don Bradman was dismissed the very next ball after Khawaja as Bumrah bowled a repeat of the McSweeney delivery. However, despite being similar in terms of the angle of delivery and the inward seam movement, the ball skidded through a lot more on the pacy Perth pitch, and Smith was LBW.
At the peak of his hand-eye coordination power, Smith was known to manage such deliveries easily as even then bowlers used to target his pads while he shuffled across in his trigger movement. However, even the Smith who was at the zenith of his batting abilities would have failed to play this delivery, which was frankly alien-esque. Human fast bowlers aren’t known to get such exaggerated inward seam movement so consistently after delivering the ball from the middle of the stumps.
That’s why, according to Cricviz data, Bumrah’s expected average in his first six-over spell today was 12.4 — the best for any opening spell against Australia since ball tracking data is available. The reason is clearly visible in his pitch map, as he was able to target that classic good length which makes it hard for the batters to either drive or cut/pull. At the Optus Stadium, that length and line proved deadly.
Bumrah had not only bowled brilliantly. He was bowling better than probably any other person in an opening spell in Australia.
If that wasn’t enough, he showed ample tactical nous in his captaincy by manning the boundaries fine of the third man for an uppercut when Harshit Rana was unleashing his bouncers. He knew he had to keep Cummins on strike for the 24th over (which he was going to bowl), and he pulled out a rare dive at mid-on to save a single and risked injuring the most precious human body in Indian cricket at the moment. And guess what? Cummins succumbed to his counterpart on the second ball of the 24th over.
Bumrah wasn’t just acing it as a bowler, he was also being an unbelievable captain on a historic day where he got to walk out as the Indian skipper along with the Aussie leader, who also happens to be one of the best fast bowlers of this generation. He knew just being ‘normal’ good wouldn’t have been enough for India.
That’s why he had to turn into a god, reduce Australia to 67/7 at the end of Day 1 and put derailed India back on track. In the process, he causally collected four wickets for just 17 runs in 10 overs, as if a bowler wakes up and bowls like this every day.
It was the kind of spell where a writer wouldn’t have to create any delusion of grandeur to highlight what he did. He’s already existing in a realm cricketing mortals can’t even comprehend. He’s so far ahead of them them. Lightning bolts shoot from his fingertips.
Jasprit Bumrah showed today (once again) that he’s a god in Adidas clothing.
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