Jasprit Bumrah’s stocks rose exponentially ever since he arrived on Australian shores this summer, with the pace ace leading India to a commanding win in the Border-Gavaskar series opener in Perth, before leaving his mark in Adelaide and Brisbane.
With his dismissal of Mitchell Starc between day three’s rain interruptions, Bumrah became the second Indian after Kapil Dev to take 50 Test wickets in Australia. Since the start of the 20th century, no bowler has a better bowling average Down Under than Bumrah’s mark of 17.82 (minimum 20 wickets).
The feat also statistically made Bumrah the best visiting bowler to Australia in more than 100 years, trumping the likes of Richard Hadlee (whose 77 scalps came at a marginally higher rate of 17.83 runs per wicket), Curtly Ambrose (78 wickets at 19.79 in Australia) and Michael Holding (63 at 24.22).
With the 31-year-old almost certain to better Kapil’s record in Australia, and also on course to breaking the record for the most wickets taken in a Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, former Australia skipper Allan Border has rated Bumrah as highly as Hadlee and Malcolm Marshall.
“I can’t properly compare him to Marshall because I never faced Bumrah but just watching him there is not much (between them). Bumrah is remarkable. He rarely bowls a spell without taking a wicket,” Border was quoted as saying by News Corp.
“He is different. Because of his action, he lets the ball go later. And he smiles all the time. He can beat a batsman three times in a row and smile each time. I have never seen anyone like him,” he added.
However, despite Bumrah’s heroics, India have struggled to contain the Australians due to the shortage of a backup, with Mohammed Siraj turning out expensive after an impressive outing in Perth. In the ensuing two Tests in Adelaide and Brisbane, he has not dismissed a top-order batter since his send-off of Travis Head in the day-night Test. India’s third quick for the first two Tests, Harshit Rana, has been discarded in Brisbane.
Akash Deep has been drafted in Rana’s place for the ongoing Test, and the right-armer finished Australia’s first innings as his side’s most economical bowler after Bumrah. Acknowledging the dearth of a consistent backup for Bumrah, former coach Ravi Shastri has said, “They were giving away runs on both sides. Bumrah has done most things right, but I think when you look at the others you think, ‘can they execute?’ They have to think how to bowl on one side of the wicket.”
India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel also spoke on the issue, saying, “Bumrah’s the number one bowler in the world and of course you need someone to back him up and help in that partnership.”
“But I honestly can’t fault the efforts of the other seamers today. Akash asked good questions with the new ball upfront, asked good questions with the older ball and on another day could easily have picked up three wickets.
“That’s the nature of this game; Test cricket is tough, you can have tough days like this. I can only say that yes the other bowlers didn’t get it right at times but in terms of effort you can’t fault that,” Morkel added.
The lack of a decent fast bowling partner for Bumrah, has once again raised the question on Mohammed Shami’s availability for the tour. With two Tests remaining in the ongoing series, and Shami yet to get the necessary fitness clearance from the National Cricket Academy, the prospects of his involvement in the Boxing Day Test (Melbourne) and New Year’s Test (Sydney) are slim.
Shami has 229 Test wickets to his name but has not played international cricket in more than a year and underwent ankle surgery earlier this year. He made his first-class comeback last month but has since been consigned to white-ball cricket.
Skipper Rohit Sharma had last week played up the possibility of a mid-series call-up, but at the same time, pointed out that the injury-plagued right-armer continues to experience swelling in his knee, jeopardising his return to international cricket.