On comeback trail, Jasprit Bumrah will need to keep it slow and steady

The pacer will be rusty and with the World Cup looming, India can't afford another false dawn.

When Jasprit Bumrah takes the field for India in the first of three T20Is against Ireland in Dublin on Friday, he will end a 326-day wait. A wait that entailed the heartbreak of missing out on a T20 World Cup in Australia. A wait that entailed being included for an ODI series against Sri Lanka in January before realising he wasn’t ready yet. A wait that entailed surgery on his back. And a wait that comprised months of uncertainty about whether he will ever conjure up the same magic again.

India's Jasprit Bumrah(AFP)

Having last played for the country on September 25, 2022, in a T20I against Australia, Bumrah will be back in the shortest format in a series devoid of context beyond assessing the ace pacer’s readiness. He will also be leading the side in Ireland, having reportedly asked for the additional responsibility.

If Bumrah was anyways likely to be put under the microscope on return, the scrutiny will be that much more magnified given the proximity of the ODI World Cup. The marquee event begins on October 5, and the 29-year-old has three T20Is in Ireland, a maximum of six ODIs in the Asia Cup and three ODIs against Australia to prove he’s capable of firing on all cylinders by the time India play their opening World Cup game against the Aussies in Chennai on October 8.

Bumrah has played a few practice games and done his bit of bowling at the nets in recent weeks, but how will his body cope to the demands of international cricket?

“Competitive cricket is a different ball game together. The demand on the body and mind is completely different, especially in international cricket. What Bumrah needs to do is take two things into consideration: adaptation (to the new demands physically and mentally) and progression,” says former Indian team trainer Ramji Srinivasan, whose four-year stint from 2009 to 2013 included India’s 2011 World Cup triumph. “He has to start progressing slowly. That is very critical. He has to take it game by game. Rhythm has to be found in a progressive manner. He cannot be overzealous. He has to build it up gradually. Coming back after a stress-related injury, there would be changes in his body mechanics.”

According to former India pacer L Balaji, who himself underwent surgery after a back stress fracture before returning to play international cricket, there will be “a little bit of hesitation of how the body will hold up.“

“When you come back from any surgery and return to the cricket field, match fitness is something you have to go through. Yes, you may bowl a lot in the nets, but on match day, you have to stand on the ground as well as field and bowl,” says the 41-year-old. “After missing one year of international cricket, I would normally like Bumrah to get into his rhythm. I would like to see him bowl short spells to begin with. The good thing is he’s playing T20s first. So he doesn’t need to bowl a lot.”

A double-edged sword in Bumrah’s case has been his peculiar bowling action. While it has allowed him to claim 319 international wickets and emerge as a point of difference in the Indian attack, it has also resulted in a great amount of stress on his lower back. With a short and stuttering run-up, all the pace that he generates is a result of the effort in his delivery stride, the hyperextension of his right elbow enabling the release of the ball a split-second later than most fast bowlers.

“There can be different reasons for a stress fracture. In most cases, stress fracture happens when you have a mixed action (a mix of side-on and front-on). I think slight corrections may have happened but nothing major. Bumrah has a unique action. That action cannot completely change because that is his second nature. That is what Bumrah knows best. If anything, he may have made minor tweaks,” says Balaji.

As we get ever closer to the start of the World Cup, the crux of the issue facing the Indian team management is deciding Bumrah’s workload going into their opening match. Should Bumrah exert himself as much as possible in the lead-up? Or should he take things easy and try to peak for the World Cup?

“Workload management has to look at the finer aspects of things rather than just the number of balls one is bowling,” Ramji says. “There has to be a cautious approach. There are no two ways about it. He has to be monitored throughout. There is no set parameter on the ideal number of overs. Whether there is any physical discomfort and how fast he is able to recover and be ready for the game, these are the signs that need to be monitored more than the number of overs per se.”

Balaji, meanwhile, wants Bumrah to play every game before the World Cup. “For bowlers, an ODI game is like a mini-Test. He should look to get around 75% of match fitness in the games available before the World Cup so that he will be confident going into the tournament. The body will get used to the workload and you won’t be rusty,” he says.

There have been a few false dawns in Bumrah’s road to recovery over the past year. If India are to end their 10-year wait for an ICC trophy this year, they cannot afford another one.