‘Heard stuff like I’ll never come back’: Bumrah’s smashing reply as IND beat ENG

The year leading up to the Asia Cup 2023 had been a challenging one for Jasprit Bumrah. The star Indian pacer had to grapple with a back injury that took longer to heal than anticipated.

This stress fracture in Bumrah’s back sidelined him during big tournaments such as the 2022 Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup and his absence left a noticeable void within the Indian team, as they fell short in their pursuit of major tournament victories.

Then, in August, when Bumrah was finally given the green light to return, he was also entrusted with the role of captaining the Indian team in a much-anticipated three-match T20I series against Ireland. However, questions lingered as to whether he could be as effective as before.

Three months into his comeback, Bumrah has left no doubt regarding his remarkable resurgence. In fact, he appears even more formidable and menacing than ever before. Bumrah has picked 26 wickets from 13 innings across ODIs and T20Is, and has been pretty much been an unplayable force in all.

Throughout his absence, Bumrah’s delayed return prompted questions from fans, along with a barrage of internet-friendly ‘Ab toh sharam kar le, Bumrah’ (At least have some shame now, Bumrah) memes. However, during his time on the sidelines, Bumrah diligently trained at the NCA nets, determined to prevent a recurrence of the injury that had plagued him last September during the Australia series. Despite being aware of the criticism and rumours surrounding his absence, Bumrah remained unfazed by the external noise and expressed his contentment with how his return to the Indian team has unfolded so far.

“My wife [the TV sports presenter Sanjana Ganesan] also works in the sports-media department. So yeah, I heard a lot of question marks on my career that I will never come back and all of that, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m very happy,” Bumrah told Sky Sports after India thrashed England by 100 runs to go top of the World Cup 2023 points table.

“I came back and I realised how much I love playing the game. I was not chasing anything. Great headspace was there when I came back from the injury. So yeah, eventually I’m looking at the positives and trying to enjoy as much as you can.”

Bumrah’s onslaught at the World Cup, which has seen him grab 14 wickets from 6 matches, continued against England, where he took 3/32 to bowl out the defending champions for just 129 in their chase of 230. The victory over England could be dubbed as India’s best win of the World Cup because A) They were batting first for the first time, and B) The bowlers responded splendidly to bowl out a woeful England for such a low total. Bumrah acknowledged England’s fight with the ball, admitting it was a good challenge for India before explaining his thought process while defending the target.

“It was good challenge for us that we were put under pressure. We lost a little bit of early wickets. We had to squeeze in and in the field as well, we had to put in a lot of effort. So yeah, very happy with the result. It was really good for us because we’ve been fielding first and we’ve been doing that for a while now. Because [India chased] in the previous series as well, which I played,” Bumrah said.

“Usually when you bowl with the new ball, you first search for swing if there is some swing. Otherwise, you just try and hit a hard length and make it as difficult as possible. So there was a little bit of swing, but not too much from my end. Then I tried to seam the ball a lot more and which was helping a little bit. So then I changed to seam bowling.”