Jasprit Bumrah has established himself as perhaps the best fast bowler of his time. By the end of his career, he could be remembered as the greatest Indian pacer to have ever played international cricket.
Former legendary seam-bowling all-rounder Kapil Dev defined what makes Bumrah so hard to hit among opposition batters. The former skipper of the Indian team believes that the batters are taken by surprise by the speed of bowling, the short run-up taken by Bumrah. But at the same time Dev even wondered how long could the Gujarat seamer continue with his distinctive run-up and action.
“There are two things that always come out. Any bowler in the world with an awkward action takes that much difficult time for a batter to pick the ball like Malinga. Those types of bowlers we don’t practice in the nets, and suddenly out of the blue, somebody comes with a different action, a difficult action, that fraction of a second, if you can’t pick what he’s trying to do, that is good enough for a bowler,” Dev said on The Squirrels YouTube channel.
“So, Bumrah has become very good because nobody could imagine from a batsman’s point of view that in such a short run up, he can generate such big pace. His action is not like an athlete’s action; that’s why Bumrah can be devastating for the opposition. But can he sustain that for a period of 10 or 12 years, which, as a cricketer, we feel is difficult.”
Kapil Dev
Jasprit Bumrah has struggled with injuries. He suffered a stress fracture in his back during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Series Trophy. The 31-year-old had to miss the Champions Trophy and the Mumbai Indians’ first games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Bumrah appeared in only three of the five Test matches on the recently finished England tour.
According to reports, Bumrah might play in the forthcoming Asia Cup in September before resting for the home Test series against the West Indies in October.
