Jasprit Bumrah: The greatest ever fast bowler of India in all formats?

It’s a discussion that can whip up a storm in the coffee cup for the cricket fan. The announcement of Jasprit Bumrah winning both the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2024 along with the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year earlier on Monday may have been bit of a done deal – but it’s also a bait to throw open the debate whether Boom Boom is the greatest ever fast bowler from India.

The operative word here is ‘fast.’ In a country where the original Fab Four in Test cricket comprised of four legendary spinners and the top two wicket-takers in Tests are also tweakers, quality pace bowlers have been always at a premium. The great Kapil Dev is the third highest wicket taker among the seamers with 434 wickets and there were likes of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan or Ishant Sharma – all men of varying skillsets but none really capable of striking a mix of terror and awe in the batters like Bumrah has done over the past one-and-a-half years.

He now joins an elite club of three other Indian cricketers: Virat Kohli (2018), Ravi Ashwin (2016) and Rahul Dravid (2004) to have won both the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year and the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award in the same year.

Remember the press conference ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where the smiling assassin took exception to being called a medium pacer? ‘’Yaar, I’ve bowled 150 kmph…you can call me a fast bowler,’’ was Bumrah’s reply – and he backed it up with a 32-wicket haul in the BGT which prompted the jury to nominate him as the Player of the Series despite India’s 3-1 series defeat. The time is hence ripe to get this straight: Bumrah is certainly in line to be India’s greatest fast bowler across all formats so far and very much up there among the global practitioners of his craft.

There will always be a counterpoint to this, especially since the cricket romantics of India will be inclined to consider the contribution of Kapil Dev as the last word – with his unique combination of fitness, mastery over swing and seam and sheer longevity. Bumrah, on the other hand, is a freak of nature with a frontloading action which makes him put his body on the line every time – raising the big question mark over the length of his career.

At 31, he has already had a back surgery which forced him out of action for more than a year while the current one – initially referred to as a back spasm in Australia – is also not looking good. However, a closer look at his achievements on his comeback in 2023 will put things in perspective – Bumrah has been the fastest among Indian bowlers to reach 200 Test wickets and fourth fastest overall with an average of 19.38, which means he conceded less than 20 runs for taking a wicket in Test cricket.  

Believe it or not, it means fewer runs conceded per wicket compared to the feared West Indies greats like Malcolm Marshall (20.94), Joel Garner (20.97), and Curtly Ambrose (20.99). These icons, held in awe for their fiery spells during the golden era of the 1980s and 1990s, formed an unassailable core of pace dominance. Bumrah, on the other hand, had been ploughing a lonely furrow in the BGT in the absence of Mohammed Shami and had captured 71 wickets in Tests from 13 Tests  throughout the year – far ahead of second-placed Gus Atkinson of England who claimed 52 wickets in 11 matches.

He bowled a staggering 357 overs in the format and yet maintained an exceptional economy rate of 2.96 – a testimony to his consistency and the batters not taking chances against Bumrah. The latter’s average for the year was an extraordinary 14.92 and he ended 2024 alongwith a staggering strike rate of just 30.1.

Bumrah’s 71-wicket haul made him only the fourth Indian bowler to take more than 70 Test wickets in a calendar year, joining the elite company of Ravichandran Ashwin, Anil Kumble, and Kapil. Ever since he returned from the back surgery, Bumrah 2.0 had been a different beast as he had been unrelenting in white ball cricket too – applying a choking effect on rivals with a change of pace in similar action, steep bouncers and searing yorkers.

 This yielded him 20 wickets in the last ODI World Cup at home to emerge as the second highest wicket taker for his country after Shami (24). In last year’s T20 World Cup in the US and Caribbean, Bumrah grabbed 15 wickets to win the Most Valuable Player – not to speak of his superlative performance throughout the year in Tests against South Africa, England, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Down Under.

“The year 2024 was incredibly special - winning the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Barbados and also contributing as much as I could across all three formats of the game,'' Bumrah said in a ICC press release on Tuesday.

As the cricketing world rises as one to doff their hat to this generational talent – he would perhaps cherish one endorsement from Kapil Dev himself like no other. ‘’Bumrah is 1000 times better than me. These young boys are far better than us. We had more experience. They are better,’’ he said.

 Therein, lies my case!

Fact Box

* First Indian pace bowler to win both ICC Cricketer of the Year & ICC Test Cricketer of the Year in the same year

* Fastest Indian pacer to 200 Test wickets

* 4th quickest to 200 Test wickets (by balls delivered): 8484

* Best average by any bowler with 200-plus Test wickets: 19.38

* Most wickets in a series in Australia by an Indian pacer: 32 wickets