Jasprit Bumrah

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STFU Donnie

STFU Donnie

Norm Smith Medallist
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Jul 31, 2012
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This guy really is something! 6/16 overnight, and could end up with 9-for.

His stats:
Tests: 12 matches, 61 wickets @ 18.87, ER 2.63, SR 43.07;

ODI: 58 matches, 103 wickets @ 21.88, ER 4.49, SR 29.21;

T20: 42 matches, 51 wickets @ 20.18; ER 6.72, SR 18.02.

And all with an action that looks as if it will dislocate his shoulder every delivery.
 

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Feels strange to have a bowler like him tbh. As an Indian fan, I've been used to getting up in the morning to see scores of 110/0 after the first session in countless overseas tests. Usually our bowling attack is composed of one good bowler (Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan), one almost but not quite there bowler (Nehra, Prasad, Umesh Yadav) and an array of crap trundlers (Vinay Kumar, Unadkat, etc.). So to have a guy like Bumrah slotting into the bowling line up and straight away becoming the leader of the attack and one of the best bowlers in the world in just a span of ten tests feels incredible. I think there are two attributes that make him the bowler he is. I remember his debut in an ODI series in Australia, he debuted in the last match of the series where he dismissed Steve Smith. What stood out was his ability to get an extra bounce off length with his whippy action. I still thought he would just be one of those many nearly good but not quite there bowlers we have had over the years.

But I heard him talk in an interview after the match and he sounded very intelligent for a rookie bowler which was unusual because I always assumed our fast bowlers were dumb lol. With his glasses and his demeanour, he looked and talked more like a university student rather than a fast bowler. His biggest strength is that he has very good brain and works out fast bowling very quickly. Asian bowlers generally tend to take one or two overseas tours to even realise the length they need to bowl to get wickets in overseas conditions. They generally tend to get carried away with the bounce and bowl short but Bumrah is someone who straight away adapted to overseas conditions like fish to water and started picking 5fers in every country he played in his very short career. He has a very good head on his shoulders and adapts to different situations, which explains his success across formats.

You can have all the brains in the world but it would be useless if you don't have the ability to effect those plans. Which brings us to his second biggest strength, his accuracy. He is almost metronomic in his lengths and has the ability to pitch the ball at will to great accuracy. I remember the group match against England in the world cup when two of the biggest strikers in the world Stokes and Buttler were teeing off against Shami in a small ground at Edgbaston on a very flat pitch. Bumrah at the other end looked like he was bowling in a different match and they just weren't able to get away from him and Bumrah was just landing one yorker after another after another. I don't think he picked a wicket that match while Shami bowled some dross and picked wickets but it was one of those spells the quality of which can't be conveyed through a scorecard. A bowler who knows which lengths to bowl in different surfaces and has the ability to bowl at those spots accurately is the recipe for a very good bowler.

It is not that these attributes are unique to him but bowlers usually take a lot of tests to reach that stage whereas to master those at a very young age in just ten or so tests is a bit special. But I'm still worried about his action, his action is the kind of action that can be career ending for many. I don't know why but I fear he might become the next Shane Bond with his action. I hope he can have atleast a decent sized career, but at the moment though, it's just about enjoying him while he's fit and firing.
 
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Buzzasto DaSilva said:
Bumrah, Rabada, Holder, Cummins.

An excellent generation of fast bowlers is coming through.
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You look at the generation following that too and consider what potential lies in Archer, Ferguson, Ngidi & the couple of West Indian prospects who've had recent exposure and done well at international level - Thomas & Joseph.
 
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
What about his action is likely to cause injury?
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He has hardly any run up, he walks for a few steps, skips and hops a few and then almost the entirety of his pace comes from the shoulder, unlike your typical fast bowler who gathers momentum through his run up. I would imagine that would put a lot of stress on your shoulder joint, although I'm not really an expert in biomechanics.

And that is not even the most unique thing about him. He is like one of those weird guys in the class who have lax elastic joints and can bend their pinky finger all the way to the back of their palm. Normally your elbow joint is restricted in extension movement beyond the 180°, i.e., it can bend forwards but can't bend backwards beyond the straight. But some guys have hyperextension in their elbow joint in that, it extends beyond the 180° and if you look at the side on action of Bumrah closely, at the point of his release of the ball, you can see that his non bowling arm is stiff and uses it almost like a pivot, while his bowling arm is in hyperextension beyond the 180°.

WMp3UMK.jpg

The hyperextension at his elbow is both his strength and I fear might also cause injury. The strength is that the hyperextension creates a whiplash like movement, that makes the ball almost come at a pace faster than the actual pace it's delivered. You combine it with the fact that he lets go off the ball at a much later point than the release points of most traditional fast bowlers and the result is that the batsman's perceived pace is almost a yard faster than the actual pace of the delivery, which is why you'll often see Bumrah rushing batsmen for pace as his pace is deceptive. But I think that constant hyperextension at the elbow got to take a toll on your joint at some point, and create some problems in the long run.
 
My thoughts:

1) He's deceptively quick - he consistently bowls around 140 km/h, which is remarkable given how languid his run-up and action are. Batsmen are fooled into thinking they have more time to face him than they do.

2) He's remarkably accurate given how much of a round-arm he bowls with. Usually more round-arm bowlers sacrifice accuracy in exchange for movement. Not Bumrah - he's both accurate and able to move the ball away from the right-hander.

3) He has a pinpoint yorker to mix things up.

4) His unorthodox action makes it harder for batsmen to pick him up, so they have even less time to play him.

5) He tends to bowl from wide of the crease - that, combined with his action, allows him to slant it across the left-hander. Figuring out which balls to play and which ones to leave from him must be tricky if you're a left-hander.

There are questions over his longevity - his action must place a hell of a lot of strain on his shoulder, plus bowlers who rely on unorthodox actions lose some of their novelty and therefore effectiveness over time as batsmen become used to them - but right now he's a truly unique talent.
 
Park cricketer said:
He has hardly any run up, he walks for a few steps, skips and hops a few and then almost the entirety of his pace comes from the shoulder, unlike your typical fast bowler who gathers momentum through his run up. I would imagine that would put a lot of stress on your shoulder joint, although I'm not really an expert in biomechanics.

And that is not even the most unique thing about him. He is like one of those weird guys in the class who have lax elastic joints and can bend their pinky finger all the way to the back of their palm. Normally your elbow joint is restricted in extension movement beyond the 180°, i.e., it can bend forwards but can't bend backwards beyond the straight. But some guys have hyperextension in their elbow joint in that, it extends beyond the 180° and if you look at the side on action of Bumrah closely, at the point of his release of the ball, you can see that his non bowling arm is stiff and uses it almost like a pivot, while his bowling arm is in hyperextension beyond the 180°.

View attachment 741021

The hyperextension at his elbow is both his strength and I fear might also cause injury. The strength is that the hyperextension creates a whiplash like movement, that makes the ball almost come at a pace faster than the actual pace it's delivered. You combine it with the fact that he lets go off the ball at a much later point than the release points of most traditional fast bowlers and the result is that the batsman's perceived pace is almost a yard faster than the actual pace of the delivery, which is why you'll often see Bumrah rushing batsmen for pace as his pace is deceptive. But I think that constant hyperextension at the elbow got to take a toll on your joint at some point, and create some problems in the long run.
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Yeah the elbow thing is weird but Shoiab Akhtar had the same and didn't have elbow problems as far as I'm aware.

The short, relatively slow run up is interesting. He wouldn't be placing the same stresses on his lower half during delivery (is it 10x your body weight that goes through a typical pace bowlers front leg for instance?). High stress. Again using Shoiab as an example, someone who ran in at a million miles per hour:

Screenshot_20190822-003316.png


Bumrah avoids these stresses. As you said potentially there is added stress on his shoulder. Time will tell I guess.

The other common one for quicks is obviously back injuries. Does he have the same counter rotation/twisting or lateral flexion/leaning over that typically causes back injuries? I haven't looked too closely I admit. But to the naked eye he doesn't have the typical side on hips/front on torso that commonly leads to back injuries.

An-example-of-a-bowler-considered-to-have-potentially-injurious-and-performance-limiting.png

Bumrah might have stumbled on an action that looks jerky and unsustainable to the naked eye but actually avoids some of the common fast bowler pitfalls.

Edit - the photo above is just some random county quick (an example of the stress placed on the back during delivery)
 
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DaRick said:
2) He's remarkably accurate given how much of a round-arm he bowls with. Usually more round-arm bowlers sacrifice accuracy in exchange for movement. Not Bumrah - he's both accurate and able to move the ball away from the right-hander.
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Don't reckon he's really round arm. Has quite a high release

bumrah.jpg
 

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