Top News

Acknowledged, no? Properly respectful and all?

What’s happening around Bumrah now though is a tug-of-war of brand persona and performance impact from the recently concluded England v India Test series. Bumrah produced two impressive first-innings fifers in it but without his usual sledgehammer impact. His series concluded with 14 wickets in 119 overs @25 econ 3.04. His work-load management mismatch – India winning the two Tests he skipped for fear of aggravating back strain – has caused a social media sniper exchange with BCCI’s timed leaks about its future strictness against ‘picking and choosing.’

The science first. The latest studies, circa 2022, around lumbar stress fracture in elite cricket fast bowlers present a range of bone-density readings on specific spinal regions, that bowlers like Bumrah – and his medical team – are required to keep tabs on, following Bumrah’s back surgery in 2023.

In this series, Bumrah was handled as carefully as possible and the questions raised are cricketing, with no prior knowledge of his latest medical reports. In Leeds, with England chased 373 to win in the second innings, Bumrah bowled more overs than the other quicks – 19 to Mohammed Siraj’s 14. The English batters chose, as Ben Duckett said, to “limit his (Bumrah’s) impact” by opting to bat conservatively against him. Bumrah bowled in short spells, the longest four overs. His last over in Leeds was the 65th of the innings, England 286-4, trailing by 81.

After the match, criticism of the profligacy of the other Indian bowlers occupied more attention and sidestepped the question of whether their No.1 bowler could have bowled more. Bumrah was not going to play in the second Test a few days later, anyway. Surely captain Shubman Gill did not lose track of who was available in his final roll of the dice? Surely Bumrah wanted to grab the ball from Gill’s hand and take a shot? There is no explanation why he did not or was not bowled on the evening of June 24 when the Lord’s Test began on July 10.

After Leeds, it was soundly being argued that at 0-1 down – with Edgbaston only beginning on July 2 – playing Bumrah would give India a better shot at 1-1. Rather than face 0-2 at Lord’s when Bumrah returned. However, what if the bone density readings recommended rest. Fine. The Headingley euphoria sidestepped the question about Bumrah’s availability.

The series had many examples of players putting their body on the line. Ben Stokes bowled himself to a standstill and a grade three muscle tear. What Rishabh Pant (broken foot) or Shoaib Bashir (broken finger) or Chris Woakes (dislocated shoulder) chose to do regardless of how that would impact them later. Muscle tears and fractures are not the same as spinal stress fractures. The question of putting career at long-term risk over short-term team gain is only answered by the players’ individual view of his situation.

Then came the Oval release. At 3.10pm on August 1, just before the start of day two of the final Test, the BCCI’s X handle posted that Bumrah had been “released” from the squad. ‘Released’ means a cricketer can leave the venue. At the Oval, Bumrah was not seen anywhere on TV unlike previously. He may have been addressing medical issues but we don’t know. ‘Released’ meant taking the choice to step away from his junior teammates, who would have lapped up “Jassi bhai’s” advice on lengths, lines and the various ticks and tells of the English batters in the most bowler-friendly conditions of the series. Mentor in the backroom instead of magician on the field.

An image suddenly popped up. Photos of Anil Kumble, arm in sling, after shoulder surgery, at the India camp in Chennai before the start of the 2001 India-Australia series, working with the bowlers. It was Kumble and his mates, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad who first banded the bowlers together into a tight unit. Their idea was to be senior buddies, counsellors and gurus of the kind they had not found when they came into the Indian team in the Kapil Dev era. India’s bowling brotherhood, set up by Kumble & Co in the early 2000s, has kept paying forward – Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan,nIshant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and then onto Bumrah himself.

The Oval ‘release’ doesn’t automatically mean Bumrah sees himself as a cut above his peers. Or indeed that he hollers at his juniors frustrated at their over-dependence on his wicket-taking. But to disengage from a young pack growing in strength and confidence is to deprive himself of their energy, joy and camaraderie.

His availability algorithm has also quelled the possibility of Captain Bumrah even before the ascent of Gill. A Test captain only available for three Tests across a staggered random time-line is undesirable and unfeasible.

One clear misstep has also taken place in Bumrah’s name. After the series, the first visual of five on Bumrah’s Instagram post of Tuesday features him back to camera with words: “We take back great memories from a highly competitive and enthralling Test series. Looking forward to what’s next”. While trying to put persona and performance in lockstep, Bumrah’s management team’s first choice in Instagram is a solo shot of a cricketer who didn’t have the most important role to play in that come-from-behind series result. That’s like an over-eager photo bomb.