In Kanpur, Jasprit Bumrah’s ‘cold play’ shows he is as big a star as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

Jasprit Bumrah doesn’t have the flying mane of a typical fast bowler, but for fans, he carries that giddy anticipation of excitement in his wake, like no other. Chris Martin can set off a concert ticket frenzy in India; Jasprit Bumrah doesn’t even need a mic to get the ball to sing.

He doesn’t have the long run-ups of Waqar Younis or Shoaib Akhtar, nor the pre-delivery jump of Zaheer Khan. He hardly shows any emotion on the pitch, and doesn’t even celebrate a wicket like Shaheen Shah Afridi or Mohammed Siraj. But in Kanpur, whenever Rohit Sharma gave him the ball, the capacity crowd at Green Park Stadium would go beserk.

Fans in sync would start drumming up a booming noise of “Ooooooooooo” like a train whistling out a tunnel, and it got louder with every stride. By the time he delivered the ball, it got near deafening. Whenever Bumrah took a wicket, it reached a crescendo, higher than anything Rohit’s six or Virat Kohli walking out to bat, had evoked.

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Kanpur: India’s Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim on the fifth day of the second test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the Green Park stadium, in Kanpur, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma) Kanpur: India’s Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim on the fifth day of the second test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the Green Park stadium, in Kanpur, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma)

“It was a bowling spectacle by Bumrah,” says former cricketer and first-class umpire Sunil Chaturvedi, still awe-struck by the effect the bowler has had on the crowd on the morning of the win.

It feels like just yesterday that Chaturvedi witnessed the entire Green Park cheer for the pulse-rushing pacer Malcolm Marshall during an India vs West Indies Test match in 1983. “The last time I have seen anything like that was when Malcolm Marshall used to be in his bowling stride way back in 1983. Yes, the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble and a Virat Kohli have received respect here, but the way the crowd reacted every time Bumrah reached his bowling mark is something I had never seen,” he adds.

On the opening Day of the second Test match, Bumrah kept testing the Bangladesh batters with a probing length, but had no wicket to show for his effort. The next two-and-a-half days, he had spent in the hotel, but when he turned up on Monday, Bumrah set the early tone with a pearler to dismiss Mushfiqur Rahim. He had picked up three wickets in the first innings. In the second with India chasing a rumbling quick victory, Bangladesh were on the ropes at 94/7 courtesy spin twins, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin.

Bumrah then made short work of the tail, dispatching Mehidy Hasan and Taijul Islam in succession. The session had been extended for 30 minutes to make up for lost time. Mushfiqur Rahim with the No 11 Khaled Ahmed was frustrating India for a few overs. It’s when Rohit would bring back Bumrah for the last over before lunch and Rahim was undone by a Bumrah brilliance on the last ball of the session.

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We have seen that famous slow ball yorker against Shaun Marsh, but Rahim didn’t get the toe-crusher. He instead was served up Bumrah’s signature off-cutter, which gripped and cleaned him up sensationally.

Kanpur has historically been a venue that has assisted spinners and stays batting-friendly. Kapil leads the charts with most wickets (25) in seven Tests, but after that, it has been dominated by Indian spinners, be it Anil Kumble (21 wickets), R Ashwin (21 wickets), Harbhajan Singh (20 wickets), or Subhash Gupte (19 wickets).

On the Indian cricketing circuit, Uttar Pradesh is famous for producing swing bowlers. The likes of Ashish Winston Zaidi and Obaid Kamal, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all of them were known for their swing. In Kanpur, the seamers had always taken wickets with swing, but with Bumrah on show, Kanpur witnessed a fast bowling spectacle that they had never seen before. It seemed like Bumrah was Chris Martin of Coldplay and the crowd was dancing to his ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ crooning.

In the podcasts, the cricket talk shows, Bumrah has been called a “cheat code” or an “alien.” He has delivered for India at the biggest stage and received praise from the best, who have played the game. On commentary, Sunil Gavaskar recollected what former West Indies pacer Andy Roberts had told Bumrah. “It was the highest appreciation he (Bumrah) can get. Andy told Bumrah that he would get the new ball in the famous West Indies pace quartet. I consider Andy the best and the most fearsome I ever faced and this coming from him, is gold.”

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Kanpur: India’s bowler Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Bangladesh’s batter Mehidy Hasan Miraz during the fifth day of the 2nd Test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the Green Park stadium, Kanpur, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma) Kanpur: India’s bowler Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Bangladesh’s batter Mehidy Hasan Miraz during the fifth day of the 2nd Test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the Green Park stadium, Kanpur, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma)

Earlier, this year, at Team India’s felicitation in front of a packed Wankhede Stadium, Virat Kohli was asked if he would sign a petition to call Jasprit Bumrah a national treasure and the eighth wonder of the world. “Let him decide what he wants to do with his schedule. We want him to play as long as possible. He’s a once-in-a-generation bowler and we’re so glad he plays for us,” Kohli had said.

“I am sure like, everyone in this stadium, we also felt that – man, is it going to slip away? What I want everyone to do is – applaud a guy, who brought us back in the tournament again, and again, and again,” Kohli had said on Bumrah’s brilliance in the T20 World Cup final.

At the recent Express Adda held in Ahmedabad, Jasprit Bumrah was asked if he thinks he is the world’s best bowler, and he said: “That is something that is not for me to decide. In my head, even when I started, I would always think that I’m very good. Because if I don’t believe in myself, who else will? The narratives can change every now and then but in my head, I have a lot of confidence that I am good … As a child, I fell in love with fast bowling and I wanted to make my team win.”

He didn’t get a five-wicket haul in Kanpur but the reception he has received is a big endorsement that Bumrah is as big a star as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

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