Jasprit Bumrah entered the arena like a gladiator and we stood still in the presence of greatness, writes OLIVER HOLT after India bowler dismantles England's top order at Headingley

Daily Mail​

3 hours ago

The floodlights came on at Headingley in the early afternoon of an oppressive June day, the better to illuminate the scene. It bore its moment in the spotlight, too, because it presaged one of the most gladiatorial entrances of any sport: the arrival of the great fast bowler.
When Jasprit Bumrah stood at the top of his mark at the Kirkstall Lane End, everything seemed to stop. The hum of the hordes on the Western Terrace quieted. Even the proud brick houses on Cardigan Road, their attic windows open in the heat, gazed down on the contest.
Whatever else happens in this summer of sport, the sight of Bumrah bowling at English batsmen will be one of its highlights. Because you need know little about cricket to recognise when you watch him, and when you watch the effect he has on opponents, that you are in the presence of greatness.
Only 86 bowlers have taken more than 200 Test wickets and none have done so at a lower average than Bumrah's 19.4. His slingshot action makes him an enigma, too, difficult to read, difficult to play against. It adds to the compelling nature of the spectacle.
The contest between Bumrah and Joe Root, England's best batsman of this era, and perhaps of any era, may yet come to define this five-Test series but the first five-over spell of his visit to England was a wonderful glimpse of the dramas and dangers and alarms and unease that his bowling will plunge England into.
Part of the theatre is the idiosyncrasy of his technique. He starts his run-up like a nag, halting and reluctant, not looking like he wants to continue, seeming as if he might give it all up and start again.
And then he accelerates into it. And by the time he arrives at the crease, he is almost dancing. Now he's not a nag. He's a Lipizzaner, prancing and snorting, elegant and imperious, the best bowler in the world.
'Bumrah's first half a dozen steps to the crease aren't even running,' former England spinner Phil Tufnell said on Test Match Special. 'He bowls 90mph off about four paces.' The ball's trajectory, coming from behind the perpendicular, makes his deliveries even more difficult to face.
Zak Crawley had the misfortune to face him first. He looked trapped before the ball had left Bumrah's right hand. He edged the fourth ball of England's innings past the slips for a four to third man. That was as good as it got for Crawley.
Bumrah's sixth ball was a Jaffa. It did Crawley all ends up. The England opener tried to get behind it, tried to fend it off, but it turned him inside out and caught the edge of his bat. It flew straight to Karun Nair at first slip and he caught it without alarm.
Only when Mohammed Siraj came on did Duckett and new batsman Ollie Pope find any respite. Facing Siraj felt like freedom compared to facing Bumrah. They loosened up and played their shots. They were in charge. When Bumrah returned, Duckett and Pope were in captivity again.
Bumrah's seventh ball was an outswinger. Duckett swiped at it outside his off stump. Bumrah had deceived him. The ball fell just in front of gully. It was an escape.
Bumrah's 10th ball was a yorker, a brilliant yorker. His yorker is a thing of legend, a delivery perfected by India's equivalent of kicking a football against a garage door again and again and again to hone technique.
Bumrah perfected his yorker as a kid by bowling a cricket ball into the skirting board at his home in Ahmedabad. 'Summers in India can be really hot in the afternoon,' Bumrah told The Guardian earlier this year, 'and parents don't let kids out. I was a hyperactive kid, lots of energy, but my mother would sleep in the afternoon.
'Then I found that if I bowled a ball into the skirting board, it didn't make a sound. So I could bowl without disturbing her. I did not imagine at the time it would develop into a yorker, I really didn't know what one was.'
This yorker did not hit a skirting board. It hit Duckett's boot. Bumrah was convinced it was out but the umpire disagreed. India reviewed it. The ball had pitched outside leg. Duckett was reprieved.
Bumrah's 14th ball found late swing. Pope flailed at it. It flew at catchable height through the gap where a fourth slip would have been. By the end of the over, Bumrah would be bowling to five slips and a backward point.
Four balls later, Bumrah found Duckett's edge again. The ball flew past Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully. If you were to be uncharitable, you would have said it was a drop. India's fielders put their hands on their heads in despair. Bumrah smiled.
With the last ball of his fourth over, Bumrah got the better of Duckett yet again. The England opener drove at the ball but could not keep it down and it flew to Ravindra Jadeja at backward point. Jadeja is one of India's best fielders. It was a comfortable chance. To general astonishment, he put the ball down. This time, Bumrah did not smile. He beat the air in frustration.
England's torture was almost over. Bumrah's fire finally began to dim.
With the last ball of his final over of the spell, Duckett drove him through the covers for four. It was the first time any of England's top three batsmen had looked comfortable in Bumrah's entire opening salvo.
It had been a treat, frankly, an opportunity to see the best Test bowler in the world at the top of his game, exhibiting his craft. He could have taken five wickets but one was enough to show us what this summer holds.
He did eventually bowl Duckett later in the afternoon. The batsman had almost had his nine lives by then. And a minute or two after 5.30pm, Bumrah bowled his first ball of this series to Root. He found an edge. It did not carry.