The Day Jasprit Bumrah Failed Us

The biggest failure of Jasprit Bumrah is that he cannot be everywhere. On Day Four of the first India-England Test at Headingley, the Indian team’s MVP was decked out in batting gear, being the avid late-order misery piler that he is with a bat in hand. After sparkling hundreds from Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul, the new-look batting lineup had run into a familiar trouble that it has been unfamiliar at least in the past half a decade.

It was the 91st over of the game and Shardul Thakur had just nicked one to Joe Root stationed in the slips. Suddenly, from 335 for 4, India were seven down at 349. England’s Tongue was wagging, and India’s tail wasn’t. He came steaming in, bowled one at the stumps, Bumrah took aim, swiped at it wildly. In 2021, during India’s last tour of England, he took 35 off a Stuart Broad over, hooking one of England’s greatest Test seamers for two sixes.

But on Monday, the world’s number one ranked bowler couldn’t do it again. He swiped wildly at it and lost his stumps. Gone for naught.

That was also how many wickets he got in the fourth innings. Naught—and that is just as unbelievable as Virat Kohli making a comeback to the Test team. Whether Bumrah just didn’t show up as much or decided to prioritise his fragile back, is anyone’s guess. Because Jasprit Bumrah is the kind of unbelievable force that can bend reality, and just force matches to go his team’s way. He doesn’t need any of his crazy records—but just two bowling performances in 2024—to prove what an incredible force of nature he is.

The first of these bowling performances came, of course, during 2024’s WT20 final against South Africa. After decades of mockery and humiliation, the Proteas weren’t letting this get away from them. Heinrich Klaasen on song is enough to invoke the fear of God in opposition bowlers and fans. It was 26 to get off 24 balls, and any opposition fan who wanted to die a slow death was willing to sit through that decimation.

Hardik Pandya’s golden arm, however, opened the gates of an unbelievable capitulation from the South Africans. Klaasen flashed at a ball bowled very wide, edged it and perished. The next over, the looming threat named Jasprit Bumrah struck for the second time in the match. Marco Jansen, the tall fast bowler who can wield the long handle quite effectively, was walking back to long faces in the dugout. Two runs in the over—and keeping David Miller quiet. If you know what I’m saying, you know what I’m saying.

Of course, Arshdeep Singh and Pandya bowled superb closing overs after that, but it was that 18th over that brought back the ghosts of losses past for the South Africans. It was the Bumrah death rattle. A few minutes more and the ‘Chokers’ had choked again.

The other time the 31-year-old just turned up and denied karma the consequences of his team’s failure to perform was at Perth, in the first Border Gavaskar Trophy 2025 Test. Batting first, India folded inside two sessions for a paltry 150. As the shadows lengthened inside the imposing Optus Stadium, Bumrah ran through the Australian batting lineup, handing the visitors a healthy 46-run lead. That spirited post-Tea burst on the first day of that series was the only reason India came back with one win from the tour.

Of course, since he was captaining the side, he could bowl eighteen out of the 51 overs India took to finish Australia off with their five bowlers. The workload he takes on—because of lack of faith in other resources, and rightly so—is not only unfair, but disrespectful. A good fast bowler is a thing of beauty, and a fast bowler of Bumrah’s pedigree is a thing of beauty that’s formed when two elements from opposite corners of the universe meet.

On Monday, everyone kept waiting for the familiar miracle to take place. Including the other Indian bowlers—Prasidh Krishna, Mohammad Siraj and Shardul Thakur. So, what if Bumrah already got a fifer in the match on an absolutely flat deck? He could always have another go at the English, under the pump and completely in thrall of the five Indian princely centuries that had been posted in the game. If you know this mad, mad fast bowler well enough, you wouldn’t be wrong to expect him to cast a spell one more time. Just one more time.

But at Headingley, Bumrah failed us. For four days in the game, India ruled despite England conceding just a six-run lead. Complete use was made of the conditions on offer—there was showmanship, cartwheels, inspired—if slightly derivative—huddle chats and even a forced joke from the slips about Krishna and Mohammad bowling together in an interfaith partnership of sorts. Ben Stokes’ men had 370 to get; surely, Bumrah would turn up from somewhere and deliver the collapse.

I hope that when his time to fail—for every star will fade—does come, we will allow him that, and fondly, if with a tinge of melancholy, look back on every single moment he has done us proud. Being the most fearsome fast bowler on the game’s grandest stage is something young boys learning to play cricket dream of.

It’s also a discipline where the dreaded End is always near, lurking in the shadows of suddenness. For Jasprit Bumrah, the dictate on him playing select games for the country is already a danger siren. It’s why we must savour each ball he bowls, each whip of the wrist and jerk of the shoulder. Each jump and follow-through.

Enjoy while he’s operating because it won’t last.