It was in 2013 that a young quick bowler from Gujarat made it to the IPL.
His rise was surprising as he was not the leading bowler for his state side, but on the back of an impressive Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a young Jasprit Bumrah was picked up by Mumbai Indians, on the basis of potential more than performance.
Kohli, who was an established part of the national team at the time and was already one of the members of the 2011 World Cup winning team, was Bumrah’s first prized scalp at the IPL. A young Bumrah had trapped Kohli plumb before the wickets in the 2013 season, on his debut for the Mumbai Indians.
That was also the season when MI won their maiden IPL title but the pacer did not get the best of starts. He played just two matches for the franchise that year. Off the 42 balls he bowled, Bumrah conceded 70 runs at an economy of 10.00 RPO and was soon dropped.
From there, Bumrah put in the hard yards and emerged as an integral part of the franchise from 2016 onwards. Bumrah has since been an automatic pick for MI and won four titles with them.
It was deja vu when in the 48th match of the Indian Premier League 2020 between Mumbai and Bangalore at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Jasprit Bumrah recorded an iconic feat.
RCB had got off to a great start with openers Josh Philippe and Devdutt Padikkal adding 71 runs for the first wicket. The stage was set for Virat Kohli to drive home the advantage provided by the openers, but Bumrah spoiled the plans of the Bangalore skipper.
Bumrah shines, Kohli walks away in disbelief – Jasprit’s 100th IPL prey
Mumbai Indians captain Kieron Pollard brought him back into the attack and Bumrah clicked right away. The ace pacer delivered a short delivery outside the off stump and Kohli mistimed a pull shot to hole out at mid-on. This brought Bumrah his 100th wicket in the Indian Premier League, the same as his first.
With Mumbai on a roll in IPL 2020, Bumrah has produced his best season. He also became the Indian bowler with most scalps in the IPL over the years by picking up more than 26 wickets, to barge ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The unorthodox bowler reached the important landmark by completing 100 wickets in the IPL, the 16th player in the tournament’s history to do so.
So far, Bumrah has played 122 IPL games in which, he has picked 148 wickets with an average of 23.16 and an economy 7.37. His best bowling figure of 5/10 came against Kolkata Knight Riders which is his only five-wicket haul in IPL so far but the Indian bowler has two four-wicket hauls. At the time of drafting this article (March 31), Bumrah has picked three wickets in two matches.
