Jasprit Bumrah, the time has come to set the ICC finals record straight
Jasprit Bumrah is a generational cricketer, of that there is no doubt. The quirkiness of his action, which includes a braced front leg, a very high arm and snappy wrists, make him the envy of teams around the world.
Add to that how consistent and accurate he is, and it is does not take rocket science to figure out why he is, arguably, the best all-format pacer on the planet.
As he seems so perfect, and seems adept at handling whatever is thrown at him, the smallest of indiscretions also become massive talking points. The flip side to being a once-in-a-lifetime cricketer.
Had others been guilty of it, it would have been passed off as an aberration. In Bumrah’s case, they are used to gauge his greatness, which whilst seeming very absurd and even ludicrous, is just how it is. Unfortunately for him, the blot that he currently has on his CV concerns his performances in the final of ICC events.
Let’s go back to 2017, and The Oval. India had been the team to beat across the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, and had demolished every challenge kept in front of them. Pakistan were among those to be chastened by the Men In Blue earlier in the tournament.
The final, though, against Pakistan, just felt different. Not because Pakistan had overcome their customary quota of turmoil and had mounted a stirring comeback to get there, but because in a high-pressure environment, where a title is at stake, anything and everything can happen.
Anything and everything did happen.
Bumrah’s first over was tidy despite the first ball being a full toss that Fakhar Zaman might have put away on another day. The second over began with a wide, possibly hinting at nerves.
The ball that followed the wide was an absolute peach. It pitched on a length in the channel, nipped away with the angle and hurried Fakhar into a stroke. He could only fish at it and nicked through to MS Dhoni, who gobbled up the chance comfortably.
The only problem, though, was that Bumrah, to the disbelief of his captain Virat Kohli and millions watching at home, had overstepped. Fakhar was recalled, and he never looked back, smashing a hundred that knocked the stuffing out of India and took Pakistan to promised land.
Bumrah, in contrast, did not even finish his 10 overs, giving up 68 in the nine he bowled. He also bowled five wides and three No balls, which for a bowler renowned for his accuracy, felt too much.
It was, quite clearly, an off-day. But because it was Bumrah, and because it came in the final of the Champions Trophy, against Pakistan no less, there were a few rumblings and grumblings. Murmurs that the pacer had been overawed by the occasion, and that he just could not handle it when it really mattered.
Cut to four years later. 2021, Southampton. Bumrah, since that Champions Trophy final, has become an even better bowler. He gets the new ball to talk and in Test cricket, there are hardly any pacers who can mirror what he does.
The 2021 World Test Championship, thus, is supposed to be his magnum opus. The game where he exorcises the ghosts of 2017, lays down yet another marker of his greatness and reiterates on the big stage that the 2017 Champions Trophy final display was just an anomaly.
Anything but that happens.
On a pitch where the ball decks around throughout, both in the air and off the surface, he returns wicketless. There are brief patches where he seems as incisive as he has ever done. But in this sport, and especially in finals, the only currency that counts is wickets, and he did not have anything to show for his toil.
Funnily enough, Bumrah, despite entering that game as perhaps the standout bowler across teams, is the only frontline fast-bowler to not pick up a wicket. Lots of reasons are thrown around.
Some revolve around his fitness, some ask whether he is the same bowler he was before his injury and some, rather damningly, just wonder if Bumrah had the mettle to come up trumps when the pressure was really amped up.
All of those questions, a day out from the 2023 World Cup final, still remain. Not because Bumrah is not good (he is pretty darn good, in fact), but because he has not had an opportunity yet to rectify those blots. Now, that time has arrived.
Jasprit Bumrah has not missed a beat this World Cup
If you have caught a glimpse of the way he has bowled this World Cup, you would have every reason to believe he is on the verge of turning things around, as far as ICC finals are concerned.
He is moving the ball both ways. He is bowling a ton of dot balls in the powerplay and creating pressure. Towards the end too, his slower balls are as undecipherable as they ever were, and his propensity to pick the right ball in the right situation is second to none, despite having missed more than half of this year due to serious injury.
In short, he has made things happen this World Cup. Whenever India have seemed in a hole, he has stood up, although in truth, his tone-setting performances with the new ball have meant that India have rarely found themselves in bowling pickles throughout the tournament.
That asterisk, though, still remains - that Bumrah has not yet won his country an ICC final. Of course, it is not up to just one individual to win India an ICC trophy, but because it is Bumrah, all of us, pundits and fans included, are perhaps a little greedy, which only illustrates how special a cricketer he is.
Sporting memory is also very fickle and most times selective. If, for some reason, the Mumbai Indians speedster is not quite at his best against Australia, the knives, a majority of them on social media, will be out, labelling him all sorts of things.
The work that he has done leading up to this final will be conveniently forgotten and the lasting image will be of him fluffing his lines when it really, really mattered, just like it was in 2017 and 2021. Rightly or wrongly.
So, Jasprit Bumrah, the time has come to set the record straight. In front of more than a lakh people at the ground, and possibly millions at home. And, of course, with everyone who ever doubted him, watching.
After all, Bumrah just seems too good to not be dominating these big occasions.