A photo shoot with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy brought together two of the world’s leading fast bowlers and in the coming days they will determine the course of cricket.
Captaincy has generally been the domain of batsmen. Their workloads allow them to work on tactics and team management, and the division of labor is arguably a little easier. When you are at the crease, all you have to worry about is scoring runs. As a bowler, you are planning your spell – R Ashwin says he sequences 25 balls at a time – you are focused on millions of minutiae – line, length, pace, variation – it can be tiring to keep an eye on the big picture.
Bumrah, however, argues that the big picture is just the natural next step of the entire bowling process and comes with a really cool advantage.
“I can control myself better when I’m captain,” he said on the eve of the first Test in Perth, “because I know when I’m rested, I know when I have to push myself and I know when I have to take on extra responsibility. Obviously, yes, there are different challenges , but there are also advantages. I look at the advantages, I understand bowling. You understand where the wicket is changing, what changes you have to make, which pitch sets are good at this. Obviously, bowlers do a lot more research. e. driven by data and also by hitters, because that’s how the game is going. So I look more at the positives than the negatives. Obviously, there will be challenges and you want to be tested and have challenges.
Bumrah started playing cricket because he was impressed by the whole fast bowling experience. As he has grown in stature, first taking on the role of senior player and then wider leadership roles, he is eager to do more. It might also excite him that there aren’t many people who have walked the path he is taking – however temporary it may be, as Rohit Sharma is expected to join the team ahead of the day-night practice game in Canberra at end of November.
India’s only other fast bowling captain – Kapil Dev (played 34, won 4, lost 7, drew 1, drew 22) – was more versatile. There are others who come with the same asterisk – Shaun Pollock (P 26, W 14, L 5, D 7), Ben Stokes (P 29, W 17, L 11, D 1) and Jason Holder (P 37, W 11) . , L 21, D 5) being notable examples. Wasim Akram (25W, 12W, 8W, 5E) and Courtney Walsh (22W, 6W, 7W, 9E) not only captained their respective countries but also had the chance to advance the fastest – bowling captains against each other in 1997 There weren’t many occasions for this piece of history to be repeated. At the start of 2024, Cummins faced Tim Southee’s New Zealand and now, eight months later, he is front and center with Bumrah.
Cummins is a little more advanced in his dual roles than his counterpart. He was named captain without doing much of it at domestic level, but his Australian teams have enjoyed huge success, especially last year when they won the World Test Championship, retained the Ashes and also became ODI World Cup winners.
It took a while for him to get into that rhythm. “I would say, yeah, maybe, you know, maybe a summer or something,” Cummins said. “So maybe a year, maybe, you know, 10 Test matches or so. I think until you’re totally comfortable [with the dual role].
“But I don’t think I’ve changed much in those 10 Test matches. Your intuition gets a little stronger. But, you know, even when I was really new to this, I’ve become wonderful, you know, teammates and employees who are helping you, so you never really feel alone.
“The question is always, are you bowling too much or not bowling enough? That’s always the question, which, yeah, again, it’s a gut feeling. Talk to other people out there, kind of make a decision.”
Bumrah will have the same kind of support – he made his Test debut under Virat Kohli in 2018 and has spent a lot of time with Rohit Sharma since his IPL debut in 2013 – but he is also very interested in striking out on his own.
“So I spoke to Rohit,” Bumrah said about the captaincy, “but when we got here, I had a little more clarity because he was also unsure about his situation at that time. trainer [Gautam Gambhir] and management gave me clarity that I will be leading this game.
“My way is, you have to find your own way, you can’t copy anyone blindly. Obviously they are both very successful and have achieved a lot of results. from my bowling too. If you notice that I have never followed a module, I follow my instincts. That’s how I’ve always played cricket and I have a lot of faith in my instincts and instincts. go with and tactically as a bowler, you always make a lot of plans. You know well what to do, what adjustments you have to make during the cricket game. So yes, I look at it that way and try to cover all the bases as much as I can. .”
Australia played four Tests at Optus Stadium and won all four. They have had a very stable team in the last three years of Cummins’ captaincy, which he found a little “strange” considering international sport tends to be full of upheaval. India are facing that turnover now, starting this tour after a 0-3 defeat at home to New Zealand, and having to create an XI short of some first-choice players.
Bumrah has done his bit to resolve this discrepancy between the two teams. “The message I would give them is that I always believe in self-confidence,” he said. “Because at the moment with cricket, everyone has played a lot of cricket. On that day, if you believe you are good enough, you can make an impact. It doesn’t matter if you played 100 Test matches or 50 Test matches, it depends on what is happening inside you.
“When I got here [in 2018] it was only my second tour. But in my head I wanted to make a difference and I wasn’t looking, I’m inexperienced, I was looking at myself, how can I contribute And if I believe I can do that, then I will make a difference. So that’s the message I also got across.
“A lot of players are coming to Australia for the first time, but they have a lot of first-class cricket, IPL experience and international experience. on the good days, it’s not like we rise too high and in the same way, we also need to learn how to deal with the bad days if we have to play international cricket. These are the conversations we have been having. Moving forward is the most important thing. The focus of our preparations has been to start from . zero, get used to the conditions, get used to the climate and focus on what needs to be done to be successful here.”
Alagappan Muthu is sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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