VISAKHAPATNAM: Ben Stokes had made a passable 'what the actual duck (replace duck with a word that rhymes with it for exact synopsis)' expression after Jasprit Bumrah had sent his stumps flying in Hyderabad. It wasn't quite as theatrical but the England skipper had the same reaction when the pacer castled him late on Saturday to put the hosts in command of the second Test against England.
An hour or so later, Bumrah revealed that was one of the few wickets he hadn't legislated for. Not in that fashion any way. "I don't know what Stokes was thinking but that was the only delivery when I attempted an outswing, the ball went straight," he told the media in the post-day press conference. "Maybe he had seen the shine and thought the ball would go away but it came in straight."
He explained why he came back earlier than anticipated in the second session. "When Mukesh (Kumar) started after lunch, there was reverse swing. So, I got the message that the ball is reverse-swinging and the ball is relatively hard, so I might have to come back early. I was not thinking of bowling a magical delivery.
"At that time (explaining Pope's wicket), the ball was relatively hard. So yes, there was some reverse swing. When it's reverse-swinging, you don't have to bowl magical deliveries every ball. So I had bowled a few away-going deliveries. There was a thought going on in my head... 'what do I bowl? Should I bowl a length delivery coming in or should I go for a yorker?' But I had not bowled a yorker till then. I thought 'Okay, might as well take a chance with that' and it did swing a lot. The execution was good."
The art of reverse swing itself is easy to understand but it can be complex to execute it. Considering the ban on saliva and pristine outfields, it can be hard to get the ball to move viciously. One water-cooler-based press-box theory is that because the England batters go hard and very early, the ball can get scuffed up fairly quickly.
There may be some merit to this argument as the pacer got it to reverse as early as the 19th over in Hyderabad. Here, Mukesh (and, subsequently, Bumrah) had got it to go from the 21st. The one sort of obvious question was how did he develop a reverse as lethal as this. It lay in first-class cricket. "If you want to take wickets in India (in first-class cricket), you have to learn to bowl reverse swing," said Bumrah, playing only his sixth Test in the country.
"Probably I learned to bowl reverse swing before the conventional swing because you play a lot of cricket on slow wickets. So you understand what you have to do over here. What are the areas that you have to hit? So, yeah, in the nets, you practice all of those skills and try to execute. What are the ways to get wickets or have an impact on the game?
"Yes, over here, I have played fewer Test matches (28 away and six at home) but a lot of first-class cricket. Then, I go back to first-class cricket. I think about what has worked for me; when the wicket is very flat, what do I do? So, (I) keep an eye on the game, where the game is heading, back your ability (and) keep trying to stay in the present. All of those things are part of my plan. How do I find answers? Whenever I'm playing any game, whenever any question comes up, I try to search for answers. That is my basic process; how do you solve problems? So that is the biggest thing that I enjoy the most."
He also likes to keep it simple. Sometimes, having too many variations could lead to over-experimentation. "Test cricket teaches you patience, isn't it," he said. "When you try to bowl magical deliveries now and then, it doesn't work. Even if you have everything, you don't need to use everything at one particular time. You understand what is working today and what is the need of the hour."
He knew what would work for him on Saturday.
