The most spectacular Jasprit Bumrah moment on his comeback came not with the ball in his hand. But when he leapt like a hurdler over Ravi Bishnoi’s sliding body near the boundary rope. Both were chasing the ball that Curtis Campher had paddled past the wicket-keeper Sanju Samson. Bumrah was about to glide, when a lunging Bishnoi flickered in his peripheral vision. If he had braked, he would have tripped over Bishnoi and landed awkwardly, potentially hurting his shoulder or back. So with graceful minimalism, he took off and touched down smoothly a few yards over the rope.
A ripple of applause crackled from the makeshift stands. They had thronged the leafy arena to watch Bumrah tear up Ireland’s batsmen. The result of the game—which India won by two runs on DLS after unrelenting downpour stalled India’s progress at 47/2, chasing 140—seemed largely inconsequential. All they wanted was to watch Bumrah.
They left satisfied yet dissatisfied. He was buzzing there or thereabouts his hallowed space, but not quite located it. His rhythm was intact, measured, stuttering strides striking a furious tempo through the crease. The shoulders whirred; the knees contorted furiously, the back arched un-jarringly. The intensity and impetus remained undiminished. This was almost the Bumrah of the old, before the back-injury wilderness. Well almost, but not quite. The balls did not snap and bite off the surface. It did not transform into a malevolent object in his hands. Precision of lengths wavered; accuracy of lines fluctuated. The pace hurried but did not intimidate the batsmen.
That’s some comeback! 👏 👏
Jasprit Bumrah led from the front and bagged the Player of the Match award as #TeamIndia win the first #IREvIND T20I by 2 runs via DLS. 👍 👍
Scorecard – https://t.co/cv6nsnJY3m | @Jaspritbumrah93 pic.twitter.com/2Y7H6XSCqN
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 18, 2023
Two contrasting overs summed up the in-between nature of his day. He was not as lethal as his two-wicket first-over burst suggests. Then, he was not as off-the-radar as his 13-run third over implied. He hit the bandwidth between the sublime and banal frequency, as it is expected from someone returning from a lengthy injury-enforced lay-off. No matter how much he might have trained and bowled in the nets, the first international match upon return carries meaning, pressure and nervousness of its own, even if the opponent was Ireland.
Advertisem*nt
Bumrah might have sounded relaxed in the pre-match press conference, but deep inside, his mind might have been tossing like the waves of an ocean, restless and anxious to test himself out in a competitive setting, to re-accustom to international cricket. The nervous excitement assumed the form of a leg-stump half-volley that Andy Balbirnie crunched for a four. The first ball on return was uncharacteristic of Bumrah. He grinned apologetically. The second ball was so truly Bumrah, though. It landed on the fifth stump, at hard length and cut back in. Balbirnie ventured out for an expansive cover-drive, his feet crease-tied, and only managed an inside-edge onto the stumps. Bumrah spread his arms out, a glee escaped his face.
Cheered every ball
Two balls later, another stroke of fortune winked at him. In what could only be described as a moment of bedlam, Lorcan Tucker tried to ramp him but instead mish*t it to Samson. A largely plain over though would fetch him a brace of wickets. He clocked an average speed of 137kph, and took as long as the third ball of his second over to hit 140 clicks. Like the first over, he began the second with an unusual half-tracker, duly pulled for four, but ended the over with four straight dot balls. Needless to say, he was raucously cheered for every ball.
Some things never change 🥹#OneFamily #IREvIND @Jaspritbumrah93 pic.twitter.com/qV6T3Ehpcb
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) August 18, 2023
It was not until the 16th over that he brought himself back, whereupon McCarthy hit him for a six, off a full ball, and four, off a low full-toss. His next eight balls, though, yielded only three runs.
In the last over, he began with a cutter barrage, all ducking into
the right-handed McCarthy. A searing yorker followed, and two nearly-yorkers wrapped up his comeback. The crowd applauded and Bumrah smiled a satisfied smile. He might not have reached his most destructive zone yet, but he showed signs of promise that he is hovering in the vicinity of that space.
Advertisem*nt
Similar was the fate of another fast bowler making his international comeback after a long injury layoff, Prasidh Krishna. The lanky pacer, on T20 debut, consistently produced discomfiting bounce and seamed the ball back, while bowling at a few notches below his regular pace. Like Bumrah, he sometimes fluffed his lines too, like the talisman, he was gifted with a pair of wickets too, those of George Dockrell and Harry Tector, the latter when trying to execute a ramp. Prasidh, though, could not sustain his intensity and ended up conceding 15 runs in his last over.
Top Sports News Now
- India send Sunil Chhetri into retirement with dull draw with Kuwait, put passage to next round of World Cup qualifiers in great danger
- T20 World Cup: Saurabh Netravalkar's composed Super Over helps USA beat Pakistan by 5 runs
- Rohit Sharma's astonishing six-hitting stat: Nearly one-fifth runs come from maximums
Click here for more
Quietly, another much-injured cricketer, Washington Sundar, squeezed in three overs for 19 runs. Ravi Bishnoi bowled sublimely for figures of 4-0-23-2; Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad raced away to a breezy start, 46 in six overs, before India lost Jaiswal and Tilak Varma off successive balls. Then pounded the rain, but whatever happened, or would have happened, deluge or firestorm, this day could have been only about Bumrah’s comeback. And so it was.
