For a player the timing of their performance is of utmost importance as is evident in Jaspreet Bumrah’s case. His sterling show in the three T20 games against Australia in January, was the key as the 22-year from Ahmedabad got picked in Indian squad for the World T20 which gets underway in a month’s time. What is more important is the fact that the Bumrah managed to get a place even as the more experienced bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav were dropped. The confidence the selectors have reposed in this youngster after his exploits in Australia.
“I think it is a wise move by the selectors,” said Kirti Azad when asked on Bumrah’s selection. Azad a member of India’s World Cup winning team in 1983, felt that it was Bumrah’s unorthodox action which helped the youngster. ‘I was watching him bowl in a couple of T20‘s and was impressed by his action. It is quite an unorthodox one and he had the Aussies guessing,” said Azad.
Another factor which helped Bumrah was his ability to surprise batsmen with some good solid yorkers. It is an open secret that if a bowler has to come up with some good yorkers. “Bumrah’s ability to come up with good yorkers was one of the main reasons why he was so successful,” said Rajinder Amarnath, “After all we don’t have many Indians who can come up with good yorkers at the international level. So I think, Bumrah’s inclusion into the World T 20 side augurs well for India,” said Rajinder.
Even Indian captain MS Dhoni was all praise for Bumrah’s yorkers. “He’s looking really good and he bowled the yorkers well. I have always said that to be successful in the shorter formats you have to execute the yorkers,” the skipper had told media in Australia. In fact, in the recent ODI’s and T20 series in Australia, Bumrah has been the X factor. In a series which has seen the strength of Indian batsmen (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) plundering runs, Bumrah’s performance is the X factor. “Before the T20 series, if someone had told me that Bumrah would emerge as the bright spot in Indian bowling I would not have believed it. But his showing in the final ODI and the three T20 matches have certainly made him the talking point of the Australian tour,” said the cricketer.
There are others who feel that the decision to Bumrah for the World T 20 was taken in a bit of haste. ‘Look I don’t understand how you can you include someone just based on that person’s performance for three or four matches. I think they (the selectors) should have waited too see Bumrah’s for a longer period,” said the cricketer who preferred to remain anonymous.
Another cricketer felt that the need for India right now was to groom bowling allrounders. ‘These are basically bowlers who can come in lower down the batting order and come up with some lusty hitting. When I talk of these bowler-batsmen, I have someone like Australia’s James Faulkner in mind. He bowls his usual quota and then comes up with some big hitting when he comes in to bat lower down. So I am not too happy with the decision to go in for Bumrah since his batting skills are a bit questionable right now,” said the cricketer.
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