2024 – the year Bumrah etched his legacy as an all-time great

2024 – the year Bumrah etched his legacy as an all-time great

Every great athlete has that one year where they are cloaked by an air of invincibility. A spell during which they could do no wrong; a period when their opponents were forced to rely on otherworldly entities for survival.

For Jasprit Bumrah, 2024 has to be that year. The last 12 months have seen Bumrah straddle formats, confound opponents and adapt to conditions with ease, questioning the narrative that the sport is tipping towards the bat wielders.

At the T20 World Cup, Bumrah was beyond irrepressible, ticking off 15 wickets at a scarcely believable average of 8.26 and a 4.17 economy. For his efforts, he was adjudged the player of the tournament as India reclaimed the title after 17 years.

And add to that the 20 wickets he squeezed at an economy of 6.48 in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where run-scoring was at an all-time ease.

But, the Indian pacer reserved his best for Test cricket, where he tallied 71 Test wickets in 2024, 21 more than the next best bowler – England pacer Gus Atkinson. Only Kapil Dev has accounted for more Test scalps for India in a year as a pacer than Bumrah.

Over the year, Bumrah missed just two Tests – he was rested once each against England and New Zealand – as his body withheld injury troubles. It also helped that the 31-year-old was left unused in India’s white-ball bilateral commitments.

With a more focused workload, Bumrah dismantled teams with the red ball, becoming the eighth pacer to accumulate 70+ Test wickets in a year. Among these eight, no one has a better bowling average or strike rate than Bumrah.

A key component in his 2024 success in Tests was his ability to induce mistakes from batters consistently. Since 2006 – the year when ball-tracking data began to be compiled – among bowlers to take at least 25 wickets, no one forced a greater false-shot percentage in a year than what Bumrah did in 2024 (28.3%).

Bumrah’s wickets were largely of his own creation, indicated by the fact that 64.7 per cent of his 2024 Test dismissals were either bowled, leg-before or caught by the keeper, the highest such ratio for any bowler with at least 30 wickets this year.

The 31-year-old has been at his fearsome best in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he has already skittled out 30 Aussie wickets at a mind-boggling average of 12.83.

This is already the second-highest wicket tally by an Indian bowler in an away Test series, only behind Bishan Singh Bedi’s 31 from the 1977-78 Australia tour.

Bumrah’s Down-Under outing began with a match-winning eight-wicket haul in Perth, which was also his maiden triumph as Test skipper. His form showed no signs of waning, despite India losing two of the three subsequent matches.

Bumrah’s performance this Aussie summer is an extension of his fortunes in the continent. The right-arm quick has taken more wickets in Australia than in any other country. His bowling average in The Great Southern Land is 17.17, the best for any visiting bowler with more than 50 Test wickets there.

During the course of a memorable BGT campaign, Bumrah also crossed the 200-wicket mark in Tests, making him the first bowler to get to the figure with a sub-20 bowling average.

His stirring form soon reflected in his ICC Test bowling rating points, as he crossed the magical 900-point mark, further solidifying his top spot in the world ranking.

Bumrah began 2025 by getting to 907 ranking points, going past R. Ashwin’s Indian record, putting himself joint-17th in the all-time ranking list. With the Sydney Test coming up, it is only likely that he will climb a few more rungs soon.

For all practicalities, the end of a year could mean nothing to the abilities of a world-class athlete. When Bumrah picks up the cherry in Sydney, the Australian batters would fear no less because of a change in the calendar.