NEW DELHI: When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for the 2024 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a possible change in captaincy was the last thing anyone would’ve contemplated.
However, circumstances arose, and Rohit Sharma had to stay back in India for the birth of his second child.
Meanwhile, Rohit’s deputy Jasprit Bumrah was given the responsibility of leading the side in formidable Australian conditions.
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Bumrah, more popular for his bowling acumen, had once led India before this. And it ended up in disaster as hosts England thumped Bumrah’s men by seven wickets.
Captain is as good as his team!
With insufficient data failing to prove Bumrah’s credentials as a Test captain, there was a hint of doubt in the minds of many, which is why TimesofIndia.com, during an interview with 1983 World Cup hero Kirti Azad, asked whether giving Bumrah the captaincy cap was the right call from the team management.
“I played with Kapil Dev, one of the greatest all-rounders in the world. Captaincy never hampered his performances. It depends on the situation. If your team is playing well, and your changes give you results, then you’re a good captain. If it doesn’t give you results, then you’re a bad captain,” Azad said with immense confidence and pride in his voice.
And he was right; Bumrah’s ‘boom boom’ performance has proved it right so far, shutting down the noise that had grown louder after he had decided to bat first on a drop-in Perth pitch with its unevenness.
Challenging start for stand-in skipper Bumrah
When the Australian triumvirate of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood sent India’s batters packing at 150 all out, Bumrah’s decision to bat first got looked into just like Virat Kohli’s change in guard, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja‘s exclusion from the playing XI, the inclusion of Devdutt Padikkal as a number three batter.
Fast forward to Day 2: Bumrah, having annihilated the Australian top order on the previous day and prompting a quirky appreciation from wife Sanjana on social media, decided against bowling the first over of the day, instead handing over the baton to Harshit Rana.
In the second over of the day, however, Bumrah took charge and rattled Alex Carey on the very first ball.
An inch-perfect good-length delivery lit up the eyes of the Australian wicketkeeper, who was caught in double minds. Thinking of leaving the delivery initially, he ended up kissing it with the edge of his willow.
The result?
Bumrah completed the 11th five-wicket haul and became the joint-highest Indian bowler with the most five-wicket hauls in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) nations, matching Kapil Dev’s record of seven. However, Bumrah has achieved this landmark in 11 fewer innings than that of Kapil Dev.
Despite partner Carey’s early dismissal, Mitchell Starc showed little resistance with Australia’s highest individual score (26) in the first innings as the pitch got better for batting as the game progressed.
But that Australian positivity was missing as Bumrah’s surreal consistency in maintaining a precise line and length had already broken the hosts’ backbone. He sent back Usman Khawaja (8), Nathan McSweeney (10), Steven Smith (0), Alex Carey (21), and Pat Cummins (3), restricting Australia to 104 — their second-lowest home total against India after 83 all-out in Melbourne, 1981, when Kapil Dev claimed a fifer.
Don’t look at captaincy as a post but responsibility: Jasprit Bumrah
This is not the first time Bumrah has single-handedly positioned Team India at an advantageous position with his sheer brilliance. Earlier this year in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, the 30-year-old pace spearhead turned the tables in India’s favour with their persistent bowling. Perhaps, his figures of 2/14 in four overs don’t reflect the manner in which he tackled the onslaught of Henrich Klassen and David Miller, helping Team India break an 11-year global trophy drought by holding South Africa to 169/8.
Even in the series against New Zealand, where Indian pitches had little help to offer for pacers, Bumrah was able to keep the Kiwi batters in check.
Now a new dawn awaits India’s most valuable asset. Balancing both captaincy and bowling responsibilities, the speedster is seeing his stock rising as the claims for ‘greatest bowler of all time’ are getting louder with each spell. And Kapil Dev would agree with those claims too.