Is Jasprit Bumrah India’s best bowler ever?

As West Indies pace great Curtly Ambrose put it - while others ran marathons, Bumrah sprinted to greatness in short bursts and sharp spells.

Ricky Ponting also agrees, “You don’t score off him. Then batting becomes uncomfortable. That’s what the best of the best do.”

Adam Gilchrist in 2024 said he was lost for words trying to describe Jasprit Bumrah. He declared the Indian superstar might be the greatest fast bowler ever witnessed on Australian soil.

“It is just a different ball game, a different planet, that Bumrah is playing on compared to everyone else in the game. It is so impressive to watch,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket. “We are running out of words to describe it. He is one of the best we have ever seen.”

At 31, Jasprit Bumrah’s best years may still be ahead of him. Others might have more on the wickets column, but very few, if any, bowlers in world cricket can match his blend of economy, strike rate, multi-format mastery and unmatched brilliance in clutch moments.

Perhaps the only thing casting any doubt over Bumrah retiring with truly elite numbers across formats is his patchy injury record.

Bumrah’s Injury concerns

Bumrah’s unorthodox slingshot action, while a key weapon for him, has also taken a toll on his body, particularly his lower back.

New Zealand’s Shane Bond, one of the fastest bowlers of all time and the coach of Jasprit Bumrah at the Mumbai Indians for several years, feels Bumrah’s unique action isn’t biomechanically inefficient per se.

His short run-up, sudden acceleration towards the end, strong locked front knee and long arms coupled with a timely snap in his wrist help him generate deceptive pace and swing.

However, the action also puts stress on his knees and lower back, which can gradually build up to cause more serious issues like stress fractures.

“The force will go up the chain: through the calf, the hamstring, the glutes and the back. And so if you are not strong in those areas, the force will end up in the back at some point,” Bond explained during an interview with ESPNCricinfo.

“So if you think of any top bowler, at some point in time when you have been bowling for a long time, your hamstrings, your calves, are going to fatigue and that force will get taken somewhere,” the Kiwi ace added.

Over the course of his career, Bumrah has suffered multiple lower back injuries, including stress fractures. One of these kept him out of action for 11 months and required him to undergo surgery.

The solution, according to Bond, is not changing his action but to optimally manage Bumrah’s workload, especially while transitioning between T20 cricket to Tests.

"First time he (Bumrah) had a stress fracture (2019), he came out of IPL and played Test cricket. So you are bowling 20 overs a week and all of a sudden you bowl 50 overs a week,” Bond noted.

Meanwhile, Bumrah, for his part, has never let an injury keep him down and has always managed to bounce back in style.

"People had said in all these years (I will play only) eight months, some said 10 months but now I have played 10 years of international cricket, 12-13 years of IPL,” Bumrah remarked in 2025.

“Even now people say (after every injury), he will be finished, he is gone. Let them say, I will do my own work. Every four months these things will crop up, but as long as almighty wants, I will play.”

With cricket returning to the Olympics, Bumrah recently expressed his desire to manage his workload and stay fit to represent India at the LA 2028 Games, which will feature the T20 format of the sport.

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