NEW DELHI: India pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami form one of the most potent fast-bowling partnerships in world cricket. Their combination is highly effective due to a blend of contrasting but complementary skills.
While Bumrah is known for his unorthodox action and ability to bowl consistently at high speeds, excelling in hitting yorkers, especially at the death, and generating seam movement, Shami offers similar pace but focuses more on seam position and swing, both conventional and reverse.His accuracy with both new and old balls makes him dangerous across formats.
Both Bumrah and Shami had played pivotal roles in India’s historic Test series triumph in 2018-19 – India’s first ever Test series win in Australia.
With India set to play their first Test against Australia exactly one month from now, here’s a look back at the roles Bumrah and Shami played in helping Virat Kohli‘s team make history.
Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah took 21 wickets from 4 Test matches with a best of 9/86 that came at an average of 17.00 and a strike rate of 44.9.
Bumrah was not the spearhead of the Indian bowling attack at the time but left the Aussie shores as the bowling mainstay of the Indian team. The strong shoulder of his that allows him to send thunderbolts at over 140 kmph even from a short run-up led to then Indian captain Virat Kohli saying that he wouldn’t like to face Bumrah in a Test match. Some compliment that.
And Bumrah had the figures to match Kohli’s words. And the guile too. The slower delivery that he bowled to dismiss Shaun Marsh LBW at the stroke of lunch on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test, not only displayed his accuracy and control but also his maturity.
Recall the 147.7 kmph delivery that Bumrah bowled to then Australian captain Tim Paine in Perth. The good length delivery had slight lateral movement, squared up Paine and zoomed past the stumps and over a jumping Rishabh Pant to race to the boundary. Now Paine was not the best batsman in the world but that delivery would have bamboozled any batsman worth his salt.
It was not surprising that Bumrah finished as the leading wicket-taker for India with 21 scalps to his name. With his then career-best figures of 6/33 in 15.5 overs at the MCG, Bumrah became the first bowler from the sub-continent to register a five-wicket haul in South Africa, England and Australia in the same year.
With match figures of 9/86, Bumrah was India’s hero in the Boxing Day Test victory. Bumrah ended his debut Test season with a record 49 wickets by any pace bowler.
Mohammed Shami
Mohammed Shami took 16 wickets in the four-Test series with a best of 6/136 at an average of 26.18 and a strike rate of 51.2.
Shami took 5 wickets in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval which India won by 31 runs. And when Virat Kohli opted to field four pacers in the second Test in Perth, it was Shami, at his furious best, who shone the brightest amongst the Indian seamers.
Shami went wicketless in the first innings but in the second innings ripped through Australia’s lower middle-order. He was on a hat-trick at one point – having dismissed Tim Paine and Aaron Finch off successive deliveries.
It was thanks mainly to Shami’s career-best haul of 6/56 that India were able to bowl out Australia for 243 runs in their second innings. But the match slipped from India’s grasp due to the lack of a balanced bowling attack – a glaring lapse even Shami had admitted to.
The ability of Bumrah and Shami to bowl in tandem makes them one of the most feared fast-bowling duos in modern cricket, especially in Test matches where they have consistently delivered for India both at home and abroad.
So the whole of India would be keeping their fingers crossed for Shami to be fit for the Australia tour.