Jasprit Bumrah:
Indian international cricket player Jasprit Bumrah was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on December 6, 1993. He is a right-arm fast bowler who has taken over 400 international wickets and is considered one of the world’s greatest fast bowlers. In July 2022, he led India in a Test match against England.
In October 2024, he was named vice-captain of the Test team for the India-New Zealand Test series. Jasprit Bumrah was selected Player of the Series for the Indian men’s squad that won the 2024 T20I World Cup. He broke Brian Lara’s previous record for the most runs scored in an over in Test cricket by scoring 35 runs in a single over.
He has participated in all five of the Mumbai Indians’ championship-winning seasons as a player for the Indian Premier League (IPL). Jasprit Bumrah was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, into a Sikh family. When he was five years old, his father passed away, and the family struggled financially.
Jasprit Bumrah was well-known for his quick bowling from an early age. He was a student at Nirman High School, where his mother was a teacher. In December 2011, he made his Under-19 debut for the Gujarat state squad due to his pace, particularly his ability to bowl yorkers, which are deliveries pitched on or inside the popping crease.
He played his first Twenty20 match for Gujarat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in March 2013 against Maharashtra. John Wright, the coach of the Mumbai Indians at the time, saw his death-bowling ability in just his second game against a formidable Mumbai club and signed him. Jasprit Bumrah was a member of Mumbai’s 2013 IPL winning team.
In August 2011, Jasprit Bumrah made his List A debut for India Under-23 against Pakistan. He grabbed seven wickets in an innings at his first-class debut against Vidarbha in October 2011, and Gujarat won by an innings. He kept playing for Gujarat, and in the 2015 Vijay Hazare Trophy final, which Gujarat won, he claimed five wickets.
During Australia’s 2015–16 tour of India, Jasprit Bumrah made his debut in both One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals within a few days of one another. In a high-scoring encounter that India won, he bowled an economical session and took his first ODI wicket, Australian star batsman Steven Smith. David Warner was one of the three wickets he claimed in his T20I debut.
Jasprit Bumrah was chosen to play for India in the 2016 T20I World Cup, where the country advanced to the semifinals. Bumrah’s no-ball in the 2017 Champions Trophy final allowed Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman a reprieve, and Zaman proceeded to produce the game-winning century.
In January 2018, Jasprit Bumrah made his Test cricket debut against South Africa. Although India lost the away series 2-1, Bumrah, who was previously seen of as a T20I specialist, made a big impression. He took his first five wickets and ended the series as India’s second-highest wicket-taker. The legendary AB de Villiers of South Africa was his first Test wicket.
Despite only participating in three of the five games, he continued to have an effect in the 2018 Test series against England, taking five more wickets and finishing as India’s third-highest wicket-taker. India won a Test series in Australia for the first time in the 2018–19 series, and Jasprit Bumrah was the top wicket-taker with yet another five-wicket haul. In the third Test, which India won in Melbourne, he was also named Player of the Match.
Jasprit Bumrah collected 18 wickets in nine games while playing for India in the 2019 ODI World Cup in England. But in the semifinals, India was defeated by New Zealand. He became the first Asian bowler to collect five wickets in South Africa, England, Australia, and the West Indies later that year when he took another five wickets in an away Test match against the West Indies.
During the same West Indies series, he also became the third bowler from India to take a Test hat-trick. Despite missing the last Test due to injury, Jasprit Bumrah was a member of the Indian side that repeated the achievement of winning a Test series in Australia in 2020–21.
Jasprit Bumrah was wicketless as India lost the June 2021 match against New Zealand, despite qualifying for the first World Test Championship (WTC) final. After the 2021 WTC final, Bumrah became the biggest wicket-taker in the Test series against England and remained one of India’s top wicket-takers in bilateral series.
Bumrah led India for the first time in the fifth game of that series, which was rescheduled for 2022 because of the COVID-19 epidemic. Bumrah blasted 29 runs off Stuart Broad to break the record for most runs scored by a hitter in a single over in Test cricket, even though India lost the game.
After adding six extras to that over, the score was 35 runs. For the 2021–2022 season, Bumrah was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Bumrah missed the 2022 T20I World Cup, the 2023 IPL season, the 2023 home Test series against Australia, and the 2023 WTC final, which India lost to Australia, due to a back ailment and subsequent recuperation. He rejoined the team for the 2023 ODI World Cup at home, where he claimed 20 wickets as India won every group games before losing to Australia in the championship match.
Bumrah won the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings for the first time in February 2024. Additionally, albeit not at the same time, he became the first bowler to reach the top rank in all three of the game’s formats. When India defeated South Africa in the 2024 T20I World Cup final in the West Indies, he won his maiden ICC title and was named Player of the Series.
India’s triumph was largely due to his last bowling spell. Bumrah has represented the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League during his franchise cricket career. After Mumbai won their first championship in 2013, he signed with the squad as an uncapped player and appeared in just two games.
Virat Kohli was his first IPL wicket. Bumrah swiftly rose to the top of the bowling team thanks to his accuracy, particularly his ability to bowl yorkers in the final overs. Due to injury, he only participated in a few games during Mumbai’s 2015 championship campaign. Bumrah was the team’s top wicket-taker in Mumbai’s subsequent three championship victories in 2017, 2019, and 2020. In the 2019 championship victory over the Chennai Super Kings, he was also named Player of the Match. He was the Mumbai Indians’ first choice for the 2025 Indian Premier League.
Commentators and cricket professionals have studied Bumrah’s bowling method in great detail. Despite producing a lot of pace, he is renowned for having a rather short run-up. Because his joints hyperextend as he gains velocity near the crease, he releases the ball around half a meter (1.6 feet) further forward than other bowlers who release the ball above the point where their front foot lands.
Bumrah appears even faster than he actually is because this shortens the batter’s reaction time. His movement also gives the ball a lot of backspin, which makes it fly farther in the batter’s direction than anticipated.
He is very challenging to defeat in all cricket formats because to his skill and remarkable accuracy. Among bowlers who have taken at least 100 Test wickets, Bumrah has one of the highest averages. In reality, Bumrah became one of the greatest players in history when he destroyed the Australian squad in the first Test match in November 2024 while acting as India’s stand-in captain during a Border–Gavaskar Trophy competition in Perth, Western Australia. Bumrah’s bowling average of almost 20 is second only to that of former England cricketer Sydney Barnes, who had an average of 16.4 in 1914, among bowlers with at least 150 Test wickets.
Legends like Wasim Akram of Pakistan, who referred to him as “the best fast bowler in the world” during match commentary, and Kapil Dev of India, who credited him for reviving fast bowling in India, praised his performance in that Test. Many who questioned Bumrah’s bowling technique were silenced by a harsh criticism made by Australian Greg Chappell in the Sydney Morning Herald.