CHENNAI: Despite having two settled top-order batsmen in the middle, India somehow just couldn’t find the range they would’ve liked against New Zealand bowlers at the Green Park Stadium.
That Indian batsmen don’t like unnecessary risk or low-percentage shots that some of their modern-day counterparts play with so much audacity is a well-known fact. They like playing conventionally and are bloody good at piercing gaps, and hence often find themselves short of those extra 20-30 runs.
Sourav Ganguly or Rahul Dravid never had the luxury of having a world-class death-over bowler who can rattle an opposition. MS Dhoni was fortunate to have the odd one like Zaheer Khan or Ashish Nehra, but runs on board was always a mandate. On flat tracks, India always searched for those few more runs to make up for bowling inadequacies.
But skipper Virat Kohli has the luxury of not having just one, but two bowlers of such kind in Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Not only are they his strike bowlers, they are also more than capable of leaving the opposition embarrassed at the death with yorkers that seemingly land in the blockhole as and when they wish.
And then there are those brilliantly-disguised slower balls and knuckle balls. There is so much variety for a batsman to think about, along with the added pressure of trying to find the boundary.
The Kanpur ODI was the sort of match where viewers may have turned off their television after seeing New Zealand need only 35 runs off 24 balls, that too with six wickets in hand.
But, in his 28 ODIs so far, Bumrah has already shown what India had been missing till now. Bhuvneshwar had a rare off day, and though Yuzvendra Chahal played his part in the win, it may have been a different story if not for Bumrah.
When Colin Munro was unleashing a flurry of boundaries off Bhuvneshwar with the new ball, Bumrah conceded only one, that too off a short ball. Lesson learnt, Bumrah stuck to his natural back-of-length deliveries that skid in with the angle, and bowled yorkers and slower balls in between as he finished his first spell. Only 12 runs were conceded in four overs, along with the wicket of Martin Guptill.
Tom Latham and Ross Taylor were threatening the hosts with another game-changing partnership. Enter Bumrah with 117 needed off 84. Off his 18 deliveries between overs 36 and 41, eight runs were given away and the prized wicket of Taylor was claimed.
What did Bumrah bank on in those 18 balls? Back-of-length deliveries that cramped the batsmen, yorkers with such accuracy that archers may have felt a tad jealous, and a mix of slower ones that the two batsmen out in the middle found hard to pick.
Bowling these deliveries is almost like a 9-to-5 job for Bumrah. Behind the scenes with bowling coach Bharathi Arun, he has consistently been told to explore his own strengths and weaknesses.
Instead, he is made to think on his own, so that in the middle, Bumrah is on his own. Areas to target for the opposition’s batsmen are fleshed out beforehand; he hardly begins a game without doing his homework. The importance of using his stock delivery sporadically has been fed into Bumrah’s system so that he doesn’t become predictable.
When Dhoni arrived as a finisher, India found a rare breed that absorbed scoreboard pressure. Maybe, India for the first time have found a bowler who is no less a monk; one with more sanity and reliability at the death — as compared to both predecessors and contemporaries — that batsmen don’t need to go in search of those extra runs.
30
Since October 2015, Bumrah has taken 30 wickets at an economy rate of 6.81 between overs 40 and 50 in ODIs.
3
Bumrah’s current ODI ranking, the highest of his career. He is ranked only below Pakistan fast bowler Hasan Ali and South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir. His previous best was fifth.
50
During the third ODI against New Zealand, Bumrah became the second fastest India bowler to take 50 wickets. He reached the mark in 28th innings, while Ajit Agarkar did it in 23.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com