What the future holds for Jasprit Bumrah?

Jasprit Bumrah has played 48 Tests for India. How do you put that number in context? After all, 48 Tests isn’t a huge number. On the other hand, for a bowler like Bumrah, 48 isn’t that small a number either. Fast bowling is the most physically demanding of all disciplines in cricket. Your joints, muscles, bones and tissues go through immense stresses when delivering the ball.

It is an explosion of violence in a few seconds - which you then have to repeat continuously. That is why fast bowlers are the most injured lot in cricket. And that’s just for the pacers with ‘normal’ or smooth bowling actions. For Bumrah, that is amped up even more because his particular action puts even more load on his back.

Considering that, it’s actually quite remarkable that Bumrah has played 48 Tests in seven and a half years. And that includes more than a year out due to injuries. As a comparison, Shoaib Akhtar played only 46 Tests in his entire career, over ten years. Akhtar was similarly explosive at the crease, and had to battle injuries throughout his career.

Moreover, Bumrah is a three-format player. And not just any three-format player but inarguably the best in the world, which means every team wants him in the playing XI as often as possible. Seen through that lens, Bumrah’s 48 Tests are actually quite sizeable. And it’s not as if he’ll stop at that number either.

However, that is idle speculation. After the 2-2 result in India’s five-Test series vs England, Bumrah himself put up an Instagram post that spoke of “Looking forward to what’s next”.

Those don’t seem to be the words of someone who has retirement from that format in mind.

However, managing Bumrah’s workload does require a delicate balancing act. He is unquestionably the best bowler in the world, so it makes sense to have him in the playing XI whenever possible. What Bumrah and the Indian team management need to decide is what loads to reduce, and where.

For starters, Bumrah need not play in sundry T20Is. He can keep his focus on T20 World Cups, and playing the IPL every year keeps him in tune with the T20 game too. When a World Cup is approaching, he can increase his T20I load in the lead up.

The same template can be followed for ODIs. Both of these work because of the kind of bowler and student of the game Bumrah is. He absorbs knowledge like a sponge, and takes the shortest time to find his rhythm and length of almost any bowler in world cricket. He also knows his own game inside out, which is why missing chunks of cricket won’t have a debilitating effect on him.

As for Test cricket, it’s clear that Bumrah is unlikely to be able to play all Tests in all series, especially the ones having four or five matches. On balance, it would make sense for the Indian team to use him when available, even at the cost of changing XIs more during a series. If you are granted a superpower that you can only use for a limited time, it’s still better to use it than lose it.

Take a look at the numbers for Bumrah vs other Indian bowlers in matches India have won, lost and drawn.

Even in defeats, Bumrah averages 26 with the ball, which is just astounding. He is better than the par figures in an Indian attack on every single metric across wins, draws or defeats. Looking at the batting is even more instructive.

In Test match wins Bumrah has been a part of, India’s collective batting average has been 33.4. In defeats, that number plummets to 21.8. And in the handful of draws, it’s 43.0. The conclusion is inescapable: batting collapses have been a big part of India’s defeats. 

The other conclusion of course, is what has always been evident - Bumrah stands alone, and India have found a diamond in him. You might want to wear your diamond to every event, but if that’s not practically feasible, then you wear it when you can.