Jasprit Bumrah: The India sling king who’s revelling in Australia

With his “slingshot” delivery and ability to unsettle the world’s best batsmen, India’s Jasprit Bumrah is widely regarded as one of cricket’s greatest fast bowlers.

The 31-year-old has defied career-threatening back problems and on Wednesday overtook Kapil Dev to become India’s leading Test wicket-taker in Australia.

Bumrah, India’s player of the series so far, took nine wickets in the third Test at Brisbane to move to 53 in Australia and past Dev’s previous mark of 51.

He was player of the match in India’s 295-run victory in Perth in the opening Test, before the hosts levelled the series in Adelaide.

He is the leading bowler on either side with 21 wickets in the series so far at a scarcely believable average of 10.90. The next best are Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with 14 dismissals each.

“I think he is definitely India’s greatest fast bowler,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said of Bumrah.

“In T20 cricket, one-day cricket and Test match cricket, he’s clearly the best right now.”

Travis Head, who has excelled with the bat for Australia in the five-match series scoring two centuries and a fifty, went even further.

“Jasprit is probably going to go down as one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game,” said Head.

Bumrah, captaining in the first Test in the absence of Rohit Sharma, made life hell for the Australian batsmen on a bouncing Perth pitch.

He took 5-30 from 18 overs as the hosts were shot out for 104 and followed up with 3-42 in the second innings as India won by 295 runs.

His unorthodox front-on action allows him to release the ball late and he can bowl yorkers at will.

Australia’s quick bowler Josh Hazlewood marvelled at Bumrah’s idiosyncratic style, which was honed in his childhood while practising in a small car park near his family’s apartment in the city of Ahmedabad.

“If you haven’t faced him before, it can really unsettle you,” Hazlewood said.

“He lets the ball go way out in front, so he’s pretty much half a yard quicker than what the actual speed gun says.

“He’s like a slingshot loading up and letting go.”

Bumrah’s match haul in Perth had some pundits questioning the legality of his deliveries, which appear to be bowled with a bent elbow.

Australian great and former India coach Greg Chappell soon jumped to Bumrah’s defence, describing the debate as “nonsense” and deeming Bumrah’s action “unequivocally clean”.

Bumrah has had his share of struggles and only came back into the India team last year after a serious back injury that kept him out of action in 2022 and 2023.

He played a key part in India’s June T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados, where he was instrumental in preventing South Africa scoring 30 runs off the last 30 balls to win the final, a performance dubbed a “masterclass” by Rohit.

The seeds of his greatness were sown at his Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, where he has been a fixture for more than a decade.

Former New Zealand batsman John Wright scouted the pace bowler from his home state of Gujarat and brought him to Mumbai in 2013, when the Indians won the first of their five IPL titles.

Bumrah made an instant impact by dismissing Bengaluru’s star batsman Virat Kohli in his first match.

Head, who fell to Bumrah in the second innings at Perth, said he loved trying to solve the conundrum that is the enigmatic bowler.

“It’s going to be nice to look back at your career and tell the grandkids that you faced him,” he said.

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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

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By the time the next IPL begins, MS Dhoni will be approaching 44. Is there another season left in him? Though it seems implausible, you can never tell with Dhoni. Although there have been rumours regarding Dhoni’s IPL retirement for the past few editions, the renowned keeper-batter is still going strong. His unparalleled physical condition is the main cause of that. While the CSK management has repeatedly acknowledged during IPL 2024 that Dhoni’s dodgy knee won’t allow him to bat for long, the Impact Player rule has undoubtedly helped the former captain wait until the final four overs to come out and bat. Nevertheless, Dhoni has given it his all both with the bat and behind the stumps.

Because Dhoni had knee surgery last year, CSK has been able to control his workload this season. There were still a few deliveries before he batted.

Nevertheless, he scored astronomical amounts in 14 games. Dhoni scored 161 runs with a strike rate of 220.55 and an average of 53.67.

He gave it his all in CSK’s crucial victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru, scoring 25 runs off of 13 balls, but he was unable to lead them to victory. CSK finished sixth in the IPL 2024 points standings after being eliminated from the playoffs.

In a video posted on the Dubai Eye 103.8 YouTube page on Monday, Dhoni emphasised the value of maintaining physical fitness. The two-time World Cup winning captain stated that if you want to play at the greatest level, you have no choice but to maintain your physical fitness because age is not a factor.

“The hardest thing is that I don’t get to play cricket all year round. Thus, I must be in shape. You will be up against young, fit players of international cricket once I arrive. A professional athlete’s journey is not simple, and age is not an excuse. You have to be just as fit as the other person to play. You don’t really get that grace as you get older. Thus, dietary patterns, some exercise, and all of those things are present. Thankfully, I don’t use social media, so there are fewer distractions.”

Dhoni said, “Once I quit international cricket…,”

Dhoni added that he missed spending time with his family during the height of his cricket career, when he was involved in all formats of the game, because he was constantly preoccupied with cricket, endorsements, etc. He also talked about how having dogs relieved his stress and allowed him to stay focused.

“I wanted to spend a little more time with my family after I retired from playing cricket internationally. However, to maintain focus and be cognitively engaged at the same time—I enjoy farming, riding motorcycles, and I’ve just developed an interest in classic vehicles. These items help me to relax. When I’m stressed, I might go to the garage and spend a few hours there. When I return, I’ll be OK,” he stated.

“Having a pet, whether a dog or a cat, has always made me feel like I grew up with… But I like dogs better. They love you without conditions. As I mentioned in a previous interview, my dog always greets me the same manner after I return from a game loss,” Dhoni continued.

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The “greatest ever” Virat Kohli, according to former Indian batter Navjot Singh Sidhu, is superior to MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sunil Gavaskar. Sidhu made remarks that are sure to cause a stir before the 2024 Indian Premier League officially begins. India has been fortunate to have some of the top batters in the world over the years. Selecting one that spans generations is regarded as one of the most difficult jobs.

Before the rise of a certain Sunil Gavaskar, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, and Vijay Hazare ruled the batting charts in India’s early years of Test cricket. By scoring 34 Test hundreds and becoming the first cricketer to surpass the 10000-run threshold, he elevated batting to a new level. Although India was fortunate to have Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, and Mohinder Amarnath in their batting lineup during his tenure, commentators would always rank Gavaskar higher.

With the conclusion of the Gavaskar period, Sachin Tendulkar emerged as India’s first cricket superstar on a worldwide scale, becoming visible in homes via color television. Tendulkar represented modern cricket with distinction. The world has seen the devastation caused by Viv Richards’ bowling attacks, and now they have experienced the devastation caused by copybook batting. Tendulkar established the standard for batting because he had every shot in the book. Records came next. He was the first to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals (ODIs), the first to score 15,000 runs in Tests, the only one to achieve 100 centuries, the first to get an ODI double century—you name it, he had it. He was also the first to play 200 tests.

Though he was in a class apart, Tendulkar also had players like Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin, and VVS Laxman. It was virtually a given that there would be an emptiness following Tendulkar’s retirement. But even when Tendulkar called it quits, the cricket world had no idea that India would get another icon in the form of Virat Kohli.

The world’s first three-format batter, Kohli, was unstoppable in Tests, ODIs, and T20Is, winning all three series with ease. He broke record after record set by Tendulkar, turned his hand to run-chasing in white-ball cricket, and consistently maintained an average of 50 or above in Twenty20 Internationals, the most unpredictable format of them all.

Sidhu believes that Kohli is the best because he can dominate three formats, something that none of the Tendulkars or Gavaskars had to do.

He is, in my opinion, the greatest Indian hitter of all time. There were times, back in the 1970s, when I would turn on my transistor and watch Sunil Gavaskar play cricket against the West Indies. That was the era of the renowned West Indies fast bowlers, who would skip class and only go out for one session. You could hear him batting without a helmet. He ruled for about fifteen to twenty years. Then another era arrived with Tendulkar. Virat followed Dhoni in order of appearance. Sidhu told India Today, “If you look at four, I would rate him as the best because he has adapted to all three formats.”

Sidhu, who will be back in the commentary booth for the 2024 Indian Premier League, claimed that while MS Dhoni was the first player to instigate a fitness revolution in Indian cricket, Kohli outgrew him in terms of fitness.

Likewise, he is the most physically fit of them all and has excellent technical ability. He would be the fittest out of the four. In his later years, Tendulkar experienced issues. Dhoni is in good shape. Virat is really well-fit. That benefits him greatly. It takes him to a level, a few notches above, that nobody else has attained. He benefits from the lifespan factor. Sone Pe Suhaaga is the factor of adaptation,” he continued.

The birth of his second child prevented Kohli from participating in the whole five-match Test series against England. In the upcoming Indian Premier League 2024, which begins on March 22, he will be a key member of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru batting lineup as he returns to the game.

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