Bharat Arun, India’s bowling coach, heaped praise on Jasprit Bumrah and called his spell of 5 for 7, in the second innings of the Antigua Test against West Indies, as one of the best spells of fast bowling by an Indian he has ever witnessed.
Shedding light into what changed for the young pacer, who had managed a solitary wicket in the first innings, Arun spoke about how he adapted to the conditions better and adjusted his lengths in order to become more potent.
“We look at the bowling as per the execution, not the outcome,” Arun said on Wednesday. “The wickets are the outcome, I’m not looking at the outcome at all. Even after the first innings, what we spoke about was the execution. It was a bit short and with his bowling, he needs to bowl up. Wickets were never the question. If you bowl the right lengths, you will get the wickets. Bumrah is quite aware of that. And it was just the momentary shift in lengths.
“Bumrah is a skilful bowler. He is aware of the situations and he has adjusted himself beautifully to every situation. Even if you see the lengths he bowled in the first and the second innings, it is obviously a lot more different. He has pitched the ball a lot more up and he was getting appreciable movement.
“It was the best spell of fast bowling I have seen from an Indian in a long time. Their awareness for the situation and the ability to adapt to situations makes them what they (the Indian pace attack) are today.”
Through the course of his spell, which had reduced West Indies to 50 for 9, before they eventually folded up for 100, took Bumrah to his 50th Test wicket, in only his 11th game. Speaking of what makes him so lethal, Arun added, “He is bowling consistently at over 140 clicks at any given point of time, and his action is not a very orthodox action. So it takes the batsman a second longer to pick up. Also, he is very accurate which makes him so potent.”
The Indian bowling coach, who was recently re-appointed to the position, has been credited for forging arguably the best pace attack Indian cricket has ever witnessed. He reasoned that it was the manner in which the workload of the bowlers is being managed coupled with the understanding of each other, that has helped the pace group to become strong.
