Jasprit Bumrah's incredible 2024 T20 World Cup campaign is going under the radar. Naman Agarwal sheds light on the all-timer of a tournament that India's main man is having.
Brett Lee, Umesh Yadav, Anrich Nortje, and Steven Finn have economy rates of 3.46 or higher in their Test careers, the same rate at which Jasprit Bumrah has conceded runs in his first four games at the 2024 T20 World Cup.
If that is not impressive enough for you, although there is no reason for it not to be, Bumrah has taken eight wickets in the first four matches, with each wicket costing 6.50 runs. No other bowler has picked as many wickets as him at a better average in the tournament.
In fact, no bowler in the history of the men's T20 World Cup has taken more wickets in a single season at a better average (or economy rate) than what Bumrah has currently. He has also conceded only four boundaries in his first 15 overs of the World Cup. Jofra Archer conceded as many in his first over against South Africa in the Super Eights clash.
And yet, despite all this, Bumrah's performance and impact on India's World Cup campaign so far has only just been treated as ... normal. There's been acknowledgement among fans and pundits, but it has been more of the gentle nod and thumbs up kind than the bear hugs and wild celebrations one.
For any other bowler, a performance anywhere close to this would have earned them a lot of recognition and a lot of credit. For batters, the fanfare would have been greater still. But with Bumrah, it's just another tournament to conquer, just another bar to be set higher, just another day in the office.
India came into the T20 World Cup with question marks over their pace attack. Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh were the only other specialist fast bowlers named in the squad. Neither had the best of IPL seasons, while Bumrah had an extraordinary one. The onus, as always, was on him to lead the attack to go with the small burden of carrying the expectations of a billion fans. Easy peasy.
Against Ireland, in their first match of the tournament, Bumrah and India came face to face with a New York surface unlike any other they had played on in the recent past. It assisted seam movement and variable bounce, and it was two-paced. Unsurprisingly, Bumrah was unplayable. He returned figures of 3-1-6-2. No eyes were batted. This was never going to be a challenge for him.
Next came Pakistan. The big match. The match which is often portrayed as bigger than the World Cup itself by some broadcasters. India were bowled out for 119. The temperatures in some parts of India – in Farenheit, of course – at that point were similar. That, coupled with India's score, made fans sweat. But cameras captured Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma laughing in the dugout close to the innings break.
How could the captain and a senior player be in a mood like that during a World Cup game against Pakistan after getting bowled out for a score that has been defended only once in the tournament's history until that point? Outrage started on social media. But it didn't last long. Bumrah vindicated those laughs. He got Babar Azam early, then he got Mohammad Rizwan just late enough. And just like that, India won the game by five runs, with Bumrah taking 3-14 in four overs.
The magnitude of the feat was immense. But since Bumrah was the chief architect of it, it almost paradoxically downplayed just how special the turnaround was. "What? He's Bumrah. He was always going to do it for India."
India, led by Bumrah, managed to put the brakes on Pakistan's run-scoring and pull off a record heist.
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) June 9, 2024
Read more: https://t.co/EYZVemAeIK pic.twitter.com/825Djf7DYY
He conceded 25 without taking a wicket against the USA after that, his worst performance in the World Cup so far. To rectify, he decided to concede fewer than one-third of that and take three wickets in India's next non-rained out match, against Afghanistan, his figures of 3-7 being the most economical by an Indian in a four-over spell in T20 World Cups.
So far in this World Cup, Bumrah has picked three wickets at an economy rate of 2.50 in the powerplay, four wickets at 5.33 through the middle overs, and one wicket at 1.67 at the death. Seventy per cent of the balls he has bowled have not fetched any runs. Yes, the World Cup has been low-scoring in general, but it hasn't been as low-scoring as Bumrah has made it look.
There's an argument to be made that he hasn't faced a lineup of high-quality T20 batters yet in the tournament. And there's merit in that argument. Ireland and the USA aren't expected to cause much trouble with the bat, Afghanistan have never quite competed against India, and Pakistan have gone backwards with their T20 game.
But that's the thing with Bumrah. There is always an asterisk accompanying him. For now, it is "helpful conditions" and "average opponents". If he does well against stronger teams down the line, it will be "doing what he's expected to do". If he doesn't, it will be "didn't perform when it mattered". And when there's no asterisk to be found, he becomes the asterisk himself: "Oh, you had Bumrah in your side. Try doing this without him."
The better he gets, the more his greatness gets normalised. Expectations are always at an unsustainable high with him. Yet he somehow manages to sustain them.
With two matches to go in the Super Eights and potentially two more after that, at worst, Bumrah will end the 2024 T20 World Cup with some of the best numbers the tournament has ever seen. At best, sky's the limit. In either case though, the all-timer campaign that he is having, will almost certainly fail to receive the recognition it deserves, as has always been the case with Bumrah. He is too good for his own good.
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