Why Jasprit Bumrah's 2024 T20 World Cup was the greatest single-edition performance | SK StatPad
Jasprit Bumrah - A name that in the blink of an eye single-handedly shut down building narratives of 'Another final choke', 'Rohit Sharma's questionable moves' and 'Virat Kohli's lack of intent with the bat' and converted them into 'Champions', 'Rohit Sharma - The genius' and 'Cometh the hour cometh the man chants for Virat Kohli' in India's 2024 T20 World Cup title-clinching win over South Africa.
While producing his customary magic show for an umpteenth time in the tournament during the waning stages of a contest slipping away, the champion pacer also enhanced his ever-growing reputation and legacy. Bowling at the peak of his powers, Bumrah had the jaws of several fans and experts drop, leaving them wondering if a potential cricket 'GOAT' was in the making.
For starters, Indian fans of yesteryear will do well to remember the growing pains of watching several opposition pacers making batters push and prod while dreaming of such visuals from one of their own. And much to their unparalleled delight, decades later, Bumrah has batters worldwide dancing to his unpredictable tunes even in the closing stages of the format known as the 'Batter's game'.
Swing and seam in either direction, well-directed bouncers and toe-crushing yorkers that threaten a batter's throat to his ankle and everything in between. Add to that the cunning slower deliveries and unplayable reverse swingers that take turns at different stages of his spells, and making the ball talk is only par for the course for Bumrah.
Above all, the 30-year-old has immense control and cerebral qualities for each format like nothing the game of cricket has possibly ever witnessed. Even as the Proteas required a mere 30 off as many deliveries to win the T20 World Cup title, Team India and its fans remained unflustered.
For they knew, they had the cheat code that is Jasprit Bumrah with two overs in the bank. And on cue, he did not disappoint, bowling two otherworldy overs for six runs with a wicket to single-handedly turn another game on its head.
While doing lip service is all well and good, it is time we deep-dive into Bumrah's achievements, his trajectory at this pace, and how his 2024 T20 World Cup showing stacks up against some of the best in the past editions.
That a Player of the Tournament honor felt like a tiny waterdrop in a massive ocean highlights the Man's stature in world cricket.
Before diving into the meal of Bumrah's story, here is an appetizer - Bumrah has conceded above seven runs per over in only five out of his previous 21 T20 bowling stints (2024 IPL + T20 World Cup), with his numbers in that stretch reading:
Wickets - 35, Average - 13.14, Economy Rate - 5.64
Have we ever seen a better 21-match run in the highest-stakes matches of the shortest format?
Hold that thought and decide for yourselves as we marvel over Bumrah's staggering numbers compared to his counterparts from previous T20 World Cups and other past legends.
How Jasprit Bumrah's mind-boggling 2024 T20 World Cup numbers stack up against the best of the past
The term 'best T20 bowlers' is hard to quantify with only one data point - number of wickets, economy rate, or average. However, a large enough sample size of each one in the right combination could help determine the optimum impact.
In the below table, we have considered the best bowler of every T20 World Cup edition from 2007 to 2024 in terms of wickets, average, and economy.
A lower average and economy rate is the ultimate impact index for a T20 bowler as long as the wickets are at a minimum qualifiable figure.
With that said, here are the best bowlers of each T20 World Cup edition:
These figures demonstrate Bumrah's unparalleled dominance even among giants from the previous T20 World Cups, who boasted stellar numbers.
As an aside, the ace Indian pacer's economy rate of 4.17 is the best in T20 World Cup history for a bowler with at least ten wickets. For a better understanding, Bumrah almost averaged bowling figures of 2/16 in four overs per match during the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Apart from Bumrah in the recently concluded edition, only Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga has ever breached the awesome threesome of averaging in single digits with an economy of under six and at least 15 wickets (2021).
Yet, the Indian giant's 2024 T20 World Cup pipped Hasaranga's average and economy from 2021. And this is without heading down the nuanced path of his single-handedly turning around lost causes against Pakistan and South Africa and bowling the toughest powerplay and death overs.
It makes Bumrah's bowling performance in the 2024 T20 World Cup undeniably the greatest ever on impact.
A look at Bumrah vs Other T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament winners
While there are no universally agreeable metrics to compare bowling numbers to batting and all-around numbers, a simple elimination exercise could help decide the best single-edition T20 World Cup performance.
Before we jump into that, here is a look at the numbers of all the T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament winners.
It is clear as night and day that Bumrah and Sam Curran are the only two to win the Player of the Tournament award primarily for their bowling exploits. And it isn't rocket science to figure out that the Indian speedster in 2024 outperformed the English all-rounder in 2022.
Also worth reminding ourselves- T20 among the three formats has varying roles and limitations that bump up or bring down numbers. Thus, team success must be accounted for while judging a cricketer's impact.
Only four of the nine Player of the Tournament winners have ever seen their team achieve ultimate glory - Kevin Pietersen in 2010, David Warner in 2021, Sam Curran in 2022, and Jasprit Bumrah in 2024. While Bumrah's 2024 performance trumps Curran in 2022, the Pietersen and Warner comparisons need greater context.
It certainly helps Bumrah that India won the 2024 T20 World Cup without losing a game, while England and Australia in 2010 and 2021 did not achieve that feat.
Also, the above table highlights how Virat Kohli, in his two Player of the Tournament campaigns in 2014 and 2016, had much better numbers than Pietersen and Warner, indicating that the duo's numbers, while brilliant, aren't of the 'never seen before' ilk.
Yet, in the case of Bumrah, there is evidence (just the previous section) of how his performance during the 2024 T20 World Cup was undeniably the best by a bowler in a single edition.
Thus, that and the team winning the trophy without a single defeat makes Bumrah's 2024 T20 World Cup performance the greatest in tournament history.
Is Bumrah trending towards GOAT status among bowlers?
Now, before the words Jasprit Bumrah and 'GOAT' in a sentence draw pushback, it is worth remembering that the below case is only a projection based on the direction he is currently trending.
After all, he is only 60th all-time in total wickets across formats with 397, and Muttiah Muralitharan, on top, boasts 1,347 wickets. So Bumrah must continue piling up the longevity and accumulated numbers to unequivocally enter the GOAT discussion for bowlers.
Yet, the speedster has met a minimum threshold to warrant such discussions, much like we did for Virat Kohli with Sachin Tendulkar even 7 to 8 years back.
Since several of the former greats played little to no T20Is, the right way to go about this would be to look at Bumrah compared to the Top-5 leading wicket-takers in Tests, ODIs, and T20Is.
In Tests, the overall average almost always precedes other bowling numbers. And Bumrah enjoys a better bowling average than any of the top five leading wicket-takers in Test history.
To further expand, his bowling average of 20.69 is better than every bowler with at least 200 wickets, and he is only 41 scalps from reaching that mark. Only two bowlers boast a better Test average than Bumrah with a qualifier of 150 wickets - Sydney Barnes and Alan Davidson.
Bumrah's strike rate of 45.10 is also considerably better than everyone on the above top-five list and is fifth all-time among bowlers with at least 150 Test scalps.
The story in ODIs isn't too dissimilar to that of Tests, with Bumrah boasting extraordinary numbers on par or better than most all-time legends.
His ODI bowling average is almost equal to the top three of Muttiah Muralitharan, Wasim Akram, and Waqar Younis. Remember, batting and run-scoring in white-ball cricket in this generation have touched stratospheric heights compared to the previous ones, making Bumrah's numbers all the more stellar.
Should the fantasy element of time travel realistically be possible, his economy rate of 4.59 could be in the ballpark as Muralitharan's or Akram's, if not better.
That Bumrah is an island by himself as the best T20I pacer going around doesn't need mentioning. Lest we forget, he is coming off the best overall bowling performance by a bowler in a T20 World Cup.
And much like the Tests and ODIs, his numbers from the above table are almost self-explanatory.
Only Rashid Khan has better numbers than Bumrah, but the Afghanistan spinner, as great as he is, has also been a beneficiary of regularly playing lesser-ranked teams.
To conclude, there is no denying that another three to four years of Bumrah at his current level of operation could shatter several bowling records across formats. Furthermore, it is on the board that his longevity and quantitative numbers are also closer to the all-time legends by then, a prerequisite to be in the GOAT conversation.
For now, let us marvel over his impact numbers that are beyond the realms of imagination and how it is already better than most of the legendary bowlers across formats and generations.
Team India fans will now hope that the ace pacer is in form and firing without any injury setbacks for the next few years, and they can have the 'When will we ever have a half-decent pacer' prayers fully answered with the 'We have the greatest bowler ever' chants.