Jasprit Bumrah may have taken only nine wickets in the ongoing T20 World Cup, but his impact has gone beyond numbers. The 32-year-old has struck at crucial moments in both the powerplay and middle overs, as was evident on Sunday when he dismissed Shimron Hetmyer and Roston Chase in the 12th over to leave the West Indies in a spot of bother in Kolkata.
Ahead of the semifinal against England on Thursday, former India captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said Bumrah should bowl two overs in the powerplay to target England’s top order early and seize early control.
“I do believe that he should be bowling at least two overs in the powerplay. Because as a new ball bowler with a brand new ball, if he can get those two wickets, if he can get Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Harry Brook, he will have pretty much broken the back of the England batting. So him coming in to bowl the fifth over and four overs have already been bowled and the batters have got about 20 deliveries, which means that both batters have got about 8-10 deliveries to settle in,” Gavaskar said during a media interaction ahead of the DP World Celebrity Golf Event to create awareness on the CHAMPS Foundation.
January marked 10 years since the pacer debuted for India in international cricket. Yet, batters around the world continue to struggle to play against him. The 76-year-old felt that continuous additions to his repertoire made Bumrah still very difficult for batters to face.
“What you see with Jasprit Bumrah is the little additions that he makes to his bowling repertoire. When he started, he was predominantly a bowler who bowled in-swingers to the right-handers and the natural away-going ball to the left-handers. In the first season itself, I think when India went to England in 2018, that’s where he actually showed that he would be able to get the ball to move into the left-hander and take it away from the right-hander.”
“Then the slow bouncer, then the slow yorker. I think he just keeps adding something to his bowling. Because he has very little change in his run-up or even in his delivery action, no batter can be prepared.”
“Because he has very little change in his run-up or even in his delivery action, no batter can be prepared. Most of the time with most bowlers – not all bowlers – if you’re at the non-striker’s end and you observe the bowlers very carefully from the time they’re walking back after bowling a ball to the top of their run-up, you will always find there is some little sign because they’re also thinking of which ball to bowl.”
“As you know, if you have read Andre Agassi’s book, how did he pick up where Boris Becker was going to serve? Because he wasn’t able to pick his serve the first few times that he played him. And then he realised that if he had his tongue on the left as he tossed the ball up, then he would be serving wide. And if he had his tongue on the right, then he would be serving on the centre line. In Bumrah’s case, he doesn’t give you anything away, and therefore it is very, very difficult to read,“ he added.
Asked in a hypothetical scenario, how he would face Bumrah, Gavaskar said: “I’m so happy I’m in the commentators’ box and not facing him.”
Advice for Abhishek
Beyond Bumrah’s role with the ball, Gavaskar also offered advice for India’s young opener Abhishek Sharma ahead of what will be his first World Cup knockout game. Rather than going hard from the outset, the former captain suggested a more measured approach that allows the batter to settle before accelerating.
“I think my advice would be to not always look to bat in the fourth gear. Maybe look to up the gears as you settle in. Yes, you want to take advantage of the power play where only two fielders are outside the 30-metre circle. You want to certainly take advantage of that. Play to your strengths. But don’t always have to look to bat in the fourth gear,” he said.
Be wary of Buttler
England batting talisman Jos Buttler has had a disappointing campaign with the bat, but Gavaskar felt that, despite his low returns, India should aim to get his wicket early on Thursday.
“I think he can be the kind of dangerous player that Abhishek Sharma is. So, getting Jos Buttler’s wicket is going to be a big, big deal. We have seen in the IPL, and we have also seen in the ICC events, that he can be such a destructive batter. He is going through a lean, just like Samson went through or even Suryakumar Yadav was going through for sometime now. Let us keep our fingers crossed as Indian supporters that he does not find form on Thursday,” he said.
Speaking about his potential finalists, Gavaskar said South Africa and England, on current form, looked good to reach the summit clash. “If you look at the form going into the semis, you will see that South Africa and England have won all their matches in the Super 8,” he said.
