Jasprit Bumrah’s comeback game itself was of little significance, but the first step into a hopefully happy resurgence has finally been made, writes Aadya Sharma.

The medieval Malahide Castle & Gardens, quite easily the biggest tourist hub of the Irish coastal town, has, among an extensive set of attractions, a lawn dedicated to outdoor movie watching. The upcoming listings at the Western Lawn features Top Gun: Maverick, one of Hollywood’s biggest crowd pullers last year.

You’ve most probably watched it too: a navy captain returns to the Top Gun air combat school after several years, tasked to mentor a group of fresh graduates. Weeks ahead of a crucial assignment, he teaches them aerial “dog-fighting” in the most hands-on way possible, and quite predictably ends up spearheading the mission himself.

Although an avant-garde speed merchant himself, Jasprit Bumrah isn’t exactly Tom Cruise’s Pete Mitchell, a fifty-something has-been fighting to stay relevant. On Friday, though, he took the first steps on his own comeback trail, reappearing in the cockpit after far too long out. And, the first assignment was spearheading a group of youngsters.

The comeback game itself was far from demanding, but the real mission is lying in wait, just  a couple of months away.

At the Malahide Cricket Club, dotted at the edge of the Castle grounds and a stone’s throw away from where families picnic with flicks, Bumrah became India’s 11th men’s T20I captain. Significantly more important was the fact that it was his first game in 11 months.

Quite honestly, it was a comeback setting as comfortable as he could get. Rain was struggling to be be contained by the dark grey clouds, readymade for Bumrah to seam it the way he does, and the opposition was a team ranked 11 rungs below his side, top in the ICC rankings.

He could not stop smiling, the genuinely child-like expression of joy staying on through the afternoon. At the toss, he grinned to say “it’s good to be back”. It was the very same grin that surfaced when Andy Balbirnie whipped his comeback delivery, a straying loosener on the pads, to the long-leg fence.

And, it was the same grin that celebrated Balbirnie’s dismissal the very next ball, off a skidding, angling one that took some bat and shook the stumps behind. A staple diet for Bumrah fans, really, but one that came after a long stretch of fasting.

Three balls later, Lorcan Tucker attempted the most audaciously needless ramp shot, giving Bumrah a bigger smile and a second wicket. Easy. All too easy.

As the Bumrah spell unfurled, the ball pinging into the pitch and seaming around like those hard, heavy plastic balls of the home cricket kind on marble floors, that same grin would have travelled across several faces in India.

It had been a long and uncertain wait: news of the diagnosed back stress reaction last year brought along enough stress and enough reactions. We knew it would take long to heal – a T20 World Cup, an IPL and a World Test Championship final went by – but the bigger fear was whether Bumrah would ever be back to being the seam-bowling Maverick he had emphatically become.

We still don’t know. Twenty-four balls aren’t enough to tell that, and certainly not on a short, low-profile T20I trip. It’s enough to stoke the combined feeling of satisfaction and hope, for Bumrah himself and for all those witnessing his return. The windmill-blade arms swung around in typically stiff lines, the action untouched despite the back injury. The head appeared to host a few more grey hair than last seen, but could hardly be spotted around his well-rested face.

It was all proper and characteristic: he tugged and adjusted his sleeve, as he always does, on the way back to his mark, rolled his fingers around to make off-cutters look like off-breaks, fired down yorkers and bouncers with an equal element of surprise and also slipped in the ever-so-discreet slower one. Once that was done, he comfortably settled inside an oversized pullover, quietly discharging his captaincy duties.

For those who wanted to notice, there were some tweaks too. He bowled the first over for only the sixth time in 60 T20I innings, adding a few more steps to an infamously short, half-walk, half-jaunt run-up. Coach and expert Abhishek Nayar, speaking on Jio Cinema, noticed how he was running in a lot harder to create momentum and build more pace at the release point.

“I think he’s increased a couple of steps to get his rhythm going”, fellow expert Kiran More added. “Earlier, he was too close to the stumps, taking a few steps and putting a lot of pressure on his back.”

By the time the Asia Cup squad is announced, Bumrah will have played one more T20I, and another will follow soon after that, but it would matter little for a selection that now looks certain. It will leave just over a month for the World Cup, the mission of all missions, where expectations will intensify multifold, and so will the challenge.

We don’t know yet if it’s enough time for Bumrah to be where he wants to be. We don’t know yet if he will be back to being what he once was. It could take one little niggle to break a million hearts and stall a perfect comeback story. Sport gives hope, but it can also scare you into not hoping too much too soon.

In a particularly hope-inducing Maverick scene, rear admiral “Hammer” attempts to foretell Pete Mitchell’s inevitable end, but is countered with a valorous reply.

“Maybe so, sir. But not today”.

Today, we celebrate Bumrah. And, just like the Cruise classic, we hope this sequel is also sweet.