Australia mission improbable: crack Jasprit Bumrah genius in 10 days. Perth is not a place where the hosts want to suffer another repeat of the second Test when India’s supreme fast bowler annihilated the top order.
Test cricket is reserved for the strong-willed and a sport that’s personified by its harshness. It is, if possible, even worse than it sounds. It seeks out the fire in the internal and, with remarkable artistry and precision, finds the weakest point and drives in the nail so firmly, it almost sticks into the bone. But is it it’s worked to be so harsh?
A more tendering, sickening and even little unsettling for most people is what Jasprit Bumrah did to Marnus Labuschagne in the first Border-Gavaskar Test in Perth. In barely 23 Bumrah deliveries, Labuschagne was dropped, took a blow to the ribs, got beaten five times without scoring and literally had been done out of cricket. He was a mass of unrecognizable activity that did not even seem to have much purpose other than using a bat to hack at the ball like an out-of-shape gardener catching midges in darkness.
He later got out lbw, without offering a shot. At that point, he was better off with a baguette. If there is any consolation for Australia’s No 3, it is that he was not the only person to have gone out of sight.
As Australia teeters, somewhat damaged and quarrelsome, into the ten-day hiatus encompassing the distance between the second Test in Adelaide and Perth, it is perhaps prudent to go back to the very first day of the test and witness every ball present in the opening spell of Bumrah. First because for the first time in anyone’s memory, the best of Australia’s top order looked completely spooked by the situational drama and completely failed to read any of the lines, angles or movement. But mainly because it was simply that it was very much a work of art.
India was clearly in control when the openers started the innings in chase of one hundred and fifty set by India who were looking doomed. At which point Bumrah decided something else was going to happen, setting off on that signature stutter-running style – like a man riding an imaginary horse, with coconut halves clapping. He still appears to be about to bowl off-breaks with six more positions to go.
Gather and release is a rather unique and somewhat involuntary action of self-propulsion. The hand which was at one moment above the head pointing towards the sky – a thumb, now points down the wicket. The right hand rests in the abdomen area and the fingers smack the adjacent buttocks serving as a point of origin of that considerable whiplash energy (the bowler’s wife Sanjana Ganesan wrote: ‘Great bowler, even better booty’ on Instagram after Bumrah’s opening day, in a way, is a rather practical technic analysis piece).
The Magic of the Outswinger: Usman Khawaja’s first ball is directed right at his pads. Nathan McSweeney is still trying to wipe that angry one off his elbow. The third ball props up little wide but he spots the same delivery that is in the same motion and follows through the same action but is moving away from the run up. That is what Bumrah brings to the party. At this moment you are already five steps ahead, narrowing your eyes and trying to spot non existent hints.
After twelve deliveries it takes twelve balls for Jasprit to get to that zone where everything is pinpointed. Now on ball 13 McSweeney finds himself in the crease blocking the bowler with all he has as the ball is angle directed inswinger that hits his leg pad first. It ends up going for a review but in Bumrah’s case what is the need for know.
And now for Marnus whose bewildering state of emotions sees no end. His first ball is an in-ducker, perfect setup for the second which is why his first ball is also absolutely perfect which stays its line around the 7th seam edge and flinds at second slip.
The game progressed and the pace started becoming more and more spatial. The pressure was built more and more with every passing ball which created a juicy angle meant to demoralise and humiliate batsmen which let most shoulders dip to just about over the off stump.
Khawaja is next, attempting a nudge towards the second slip. After one for the highlights, Steve Smith loses his wicket to the first ball when he is beautifully sneaked in with the in-dipper. The trying disturbance created a series of strikes on Smith’s pad which made him appear out of sorts as he tried using his bat as a pogo stick in the final moments of that ball.
Throughout this, Marnus is suffering through it and flinching. He monotonously ducks a bouncer. He yells, ‘NO RUN’, in a manner of a man who has blocked one but is struggling to locate any glimmer of realness in that day, screaming as though he is looking for security in sound or shape or colour, and when everything would make sense.
Things do not progress as one might expect. Yes, Labuschagne still possesses some of the qualities of the nerd-goof tough to shake off during even his best moments. None of the top batsmen train the worst of batting any better than him. But he does average 48 in Tests and is one of the better new ball players in the modern game.
In terms of performance, Labuschagne was able to put on a worthy contest only in the very first innings after getting dismissed for a lowly 2 runs in the second innings courtesy of Mohammed Siraj. In the second against the energetic spinners, he also became a mute spectator to an equally fierce spell of action by the great Bumrah.
Now this was something else, what a picture it was! The fifth ball of Labuschagne’s tournament may be called the fifth ball in the neck-rising moment, and trying to leave it too late just led to him succumbing into a position where his wrists crashed to the ground, which one can imagine is similar to a US marine being ordered to drop and give everyone twenty pushups.
He also offered a strange rebuttal to Labuschange and the referee noticed it. He appeared to have seen it coming. Only two had put two fingers up for no valid reason before. And now the bowler had to go about a two step process to eliminate the batsman.
Bumrah finished the day with stats that show he bowled 9 overs and took 5 wickets while giving 10 runs against the Australian batsmen. There were moments when it felt like a category error. These are cricketers with Nasa-level reflexes, who since childhood have been in a cocoon of elite performance, here are reduced to the level of club cricket under-nines against an average county fast bowler on a bouncy plastic grass pitch.
And this is the signature of Bumrah’s greatness. At his best, it feels like a step change – a different reorganisation of something you thought you understood – cricketing cubism. After Australia’s 295-run thumping – in Perth, which is one of the most hallowed cathedrals of deep Australian sporting passion – it is not surprising there was a hint of disbelief flitting around social media that what they saw was some sort of error.
It was not surprising to hear random Australian X avatars suggest that Bumrah has to be chucking or that his action is protected from scrutiny through some overlord machinations of the BCCI. Actually, anybody who has been watching for the last six years knows that this is a no go zone. Bumrah isn’t a chucker. But he is a genius. And one that Australia has until 6 December to figure out a little or this series will not last long.
What Bumrah does, he really does quite well. At the age of thirty years, he has taken 181 Test wickets at an average of twenty point six, which is the best career bowling average for players who have played at least 40 Tests. He’s taken 47 wickets at 17 at home and 134 at 20 away.
There’s no question about that, Bumrah excels in every single format of the game. His one-day international economy rate is 4.59. This is what, 1982? If we are indeed going to pursue this line, and sport always does, we are able to see why the numbers make Bumrah one of the greatest fast bowlers in the world today.
How has he been able to pull such figures? As always, it is the ethereal nature of Bumrah’s body. One of his natural advantages is the hyperextension of his elbow which makes him unique like a 6-foot 7-inch person or a person with power-packed fast twitch muscles. Throwing the wrist and the whips of the bowling arm together essentially means you have a conjoined triple movement. The hyperextension means he’s just letting it go and the other end is closer. In the run-up, there isn’t much to concentrate on. When hitting the ground with his feet, Joe Root enjoys rocking his bat in unison with the bowler’s actions.
However, even referring to him as a physical freak is a stretch. He’s a mental freak few would know about, extremely clever, and an information and a problem solving sponge. Which in a manner fits in well with the upcoming day-night Test in Adelaide. For starters Bumrah has reservations about the pink ball. He hasn’t yet produced a signature performance during a day-night game. But even his own desperate, unfeeling diagnostics of the phenomenon, such as the challenge of shifting one’s biological clock, hints at the why in most cases. He trains as he plays and works out where to place his and the ball, helps to secure a seam, and outsmarts opponents.
This is a strategy now Australia must also adopt towards Bumrah himself who has an ominous record in Melbourne and has all the hallmarks of someone suited to the Gabba. In any case, he remains an irrepressible presence. When it comes to the narratives around dying formats, talent drain, eyeball fatigue; India are often cast as the villains, the hitmen and all around Cluedo card murderers.