Birmingham, July 3: They once used to say, 'If Lillee don’t get you, Thommo will.”
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami aren’t quite Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson yet – who knows if they will ever get there, in fact – but they are quite a strike-force, capable of working batsmen over both in tandem and on their own.
Shami was a late entrant into the World Cup eleven, having ceded first-choice status to swing exponent Bhuvneshwar Kumar whose lower-order batting is an added bonus. Bumrah, of course, is the top-ranked bowler in One-Day International cricket, and has wasted little time in showing why he enjoys that coveted status.
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Once Shami did break into the side following a hamstring injury to Bhuvneshwar, he was quickly into his stride. Four wickets each against Afghanistan and West Indies set up him for the tournament, and when he followed it up with his maiden five-for against England on Sunday, everything seemed to have fallen nicely in place for the Bengal quick who has put the travails of a difficult phase behind him.
Unlike his thinking, his bowling is very complex and complicated. His changes of pace come without a statutory warning, his yorkers zero in on toes as if radar-directed -- Vijay Shankar, anyone? His ambling, shuffling walk followed by a short charge to the crease hardly scream out for attention, but when the ball leaves his elevated right hand and starts its journey towards the other end, batsmen are transfixed like rabbits in a headlight.
His first wicket on Tuesday came off a slower delivery that defeated Sabbir’s hoick and rattled leg-stump. The next arrived courtesy a beautifully disguised cutter which Mosaddek Hossain guided on to his sticks. The coup de grace was delivered with his final two deliveries, screaming yorkers that Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman simply found too hot to handle. What’s the fuss about, he might have asked. Tight finish? Really? Take this.
Take it, India certainly did, with no little gratitude. Before you could say Jasprit Bumrah world No. 1, it was all over. Finally, the rewards for persistence, sincerity, clarity of thought and impeccability of execution came gushing forth. Bhuvneshwar and Shami might be the more experienced, but their junior colleague is the more lethal. In a crisis, he is Kohli’s go-to man. He is the undisputed leader of the pack. And yes, if Shami don’t get you, he surely will.
(R Kaushik is a cricket writer who has followed the sport closely for nearly three decades, and is covering his seventh World Cup)