Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah player profile

Arguably the most skilful fast bowler India have produced, Jasprit Bumrah has been central to their rise as a Test match power in the late 2010s and onward. All pistoning arms and legs in his unorthodox action and late release, he makes the ball do tricks few people not named Wasim Akram have.

Bumrah was a yorker specialist early in his career, like his Mumbai Indians team-mate Lasith Malinga, and he learnt much about the art of hitting the blockhole from Malinga. But he developed to be so much more, adept at bowling swing both conventional and reverse, and able to produce deceptive speed, cut and dip almost at will. Within seven years of his debut he became the first in Test history to take 200 Test wickets at an average of under 20.

Bumrah played his first international on the white-ball tour of Australia early in 2016, off the back of a domestic season in which he excelled for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and topped the bowling charts in the Vijay Hazare tournament. He was the highest wicket-taker in the T20I leg of that Australia tour, which India won 3-0.

His Test debut came two years on in South Africa, and he took a five-for in his third match, in Johannesburg, helping India pull it back to 2-1 in the series. Another 14 wickets followed on the tour of England in the summer of 2018. In Melbourne at the end of the year, he hit a spectacular gear, scuppering Australia with 6 for 33 and 3 for 53 in a performance that turned out to be instrumental in India winning their first ever Test series there.

From the middle of 2017 through to late October 2018, he took a round 50 ODI wickets in seven consecutive series that India won, including the Asia Cup in Dubai.

Bumrah also feasted during the 2-0 rout of West Indies away in 2019, taking 13 wickets at the absurd average of 9.23. Come the Melbourne Test of 2020, he took six in another win, though he was absent hurt for the landmark Brisbane win that gave India the series. His next time at the MCG, in 2024, he nearly dragged India to a win with the force of his talent and will, taking nine. Bumrah in that series seemed to operate on a different plane from the other bowlers, taking 32 wickets at 13.06 and breaking down injured in the Sydney Test, were it not for which, India might have kept their decade-long unbeaten streak intact. That year was an annus mirabilis - he was the MVP in India's T20 World Cup-winning campaign, took nine wickets in the Visakhapatnam Test win against England (and 19 in the four Tests of that series overall).

That Bumrah's skills translate to all formats has been borne out by his terrific T20 record. Long a Mumbai Indians mainstay, he has won five titles with them, taking 66 wickets in their three title-winning seasons in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Jasprit Bumrah IPL factfile

- Jasprit Bumrah is one of the key players in Mumbai Indians' (MI) rise to becoming five-time champions in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He is their second-highest wicket-taker after Lasith Malinga.

- Bumrah was spotted by MI after just one season of domestic T20 cricket and signed as an uncapped player ahead of IPL 2013. He played just two matches in his debut season and his first IPL wicket was that of Virat Kohli. His 100th IPL wicket, in IPL 2020, was also that of Kohli.

- Since 2014, Bumrah has been a key part of the MI bowling unit and has grown to become its undisputed leader. With his unique action and high pace, Bumrah possesses a bagful of variations and a lethally accurate yorker, and is a force in every stage of the game.

- Bumrah was MI's highest wicket-taker in three of their IPL title wins, taking 20 wickets in 2017, 19 in 2019, and 27 in 2020. He was also part of the squad when Mumbai won titles in 2013 and 2015, though he didn't play many games because he was new in 2013 and injured in 2015.