Jasprit Bumrah's smooth swing

It was about 20 months ago that a promising young India pacer Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut in South Africa. Many eyebrows were raised when he was handed a Test cap ahead of seasoned fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav during the opening Test of India's tour of South Africa in Cape Town in January last year.

Labelled largely as a white-ball bowler, numbers were also not in the Ahmedabad pacer's favour, with a not-so-eye-popping record with the red ball in domestic cricket (89 wickets in 26 games). Till then, however, Bumrah had already established himself in limited-overs cricket with impressive performances for India, having picked up 56 and 40 wickets in 31 ODIs and 32 T20Is, respectively.

With a heady mixture of consistency and variations, Bumrah soon emerged as the most destructive match-winner for India in both T20Is and ODIs. However, the change of colour of the ball didn't affect Bumrah's performance as he took the world by storm, most recently in the Test series against the West Indies.

Delivering equally lethal bowling performances with the red ball, Bumrah has shed the tag of being a limited-overs specialist. The 25-year-old became only the third Indian bowler, after Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan, to take a hat-trick in Test cricket when he achieved the feat in the second Test against the West Indies.

Showered with appreciation the world over, nothing would probably feel better for Bumrah than being appreciated by his skipper. "He confuses with his angles, swing and pace. I think he is the most complete bowler in the world cricket right now. It's really pleasing to see how a guy who was tagged a T20 specialist came and took over the ODI scene and now Test cricket. He is proving people wrong that there is a set template for every format," India captain Virat Kohli said after India's series-clinching victory over the Windies.

Bumrah, playing all his 12 Tests overseas, has so far claimed five five-wicket hauls in his career. The right-arm pacer is one of very few bowlers with an unusual action in international cricket.

And, Bumrah's childhood coach Kishore Trivedi feels that is his biggest strength. "Bumrah joined my academy, Royal Cricket Academy in Ahmedabad, when he was 15. He had that unorthodox action from the start. When he was bowling in the nets for the first time, other players came to me and said, 'ye kya bowling daal raha hai (how is he bowling?). But, I told them, 'he's bowling right, let him bowl'," Trivedi said.

"I told him (Bumrah) this action is your weapon. This is your natural action. If anyone tells you to change it, don't worry. Keep bowling with this action. Because I knew that if we try and change his action it will affect his speed and swing.

"It is because of his odd action that batsmen are not able to read him properly. They don't get any clue about which direction he is bowling. His left hand comes straight which distracts batsman and keeps them guessing," Trivedi added.

With natural inswing, yorker, bouncer and slower ball already packed in his armoury, Bumrah has recently developed the ability to bowl outswingers to the right-handers, which makes him even more dangerous. Former India pacer Karsan Ghavri is highly impressed with the way Bumrah has improved in the short span of his career in the longest format of the game. "Bumrah is an absolutely quality bowler. The way he is bowling, he has become the strike bowler for our country. He has great control of the ball, line and length, and accuracy along with variations," Ghavri said.

"Earlier, he was bowling only inswingers to the right-handers, which was his natural swing but now he has developed the outswinger also. That makes him unplayable. He has showed the world that he's not only a T20I or ODI player but also equally best in Test cricket," Ghavri added.

The steep rise has been such that the pacer has now claimed the third spot in the ICC Test bowling rankings along with his top-placed ranking in ODIs.

With India scheduled to play South Africa and Bangladesh at home later this year, it will be interesting to see how Bumrah, who has played all his Tests away from home, will deal on Indian wickets that tend to hardly assist pacers. Ghavri, however, felt that Bumrah can conquer conditions at home as well as he has done in foreign conditions. "Though the conditions will not be as favourable as overseas where he has played so far, but he can surprise batsmen with the pace and variation. He is looking fit and conditions at home demand a lot of energy."