Jasprit Bumrah’s 100 Test Wickets: A Journey Of Dominance

Jasprit Bumrah's test wickets [X.com]Jasprit Bumrah's test wickets [X.com]

Not a lot of people had high hopes from Jasprit Bumrah when he made his Test debut on the tour of South Africa in 2018. However, almost 6.5 years later, one cannot imagine the Indian Test team without Bumrah.

The last 6.5 years have been special for every Indian fan, who has witnessed Bumrah at his best, tearing apart the opposition batters with pace and exemplary skills. Despite making his international debut in 2016, people had their doubts regarding Bumrah's capability to deliver in the game's longest format.

However, everything changed when the former Test captain, Virat Kohli and the then head coach, Ravi Shastri fought with the selectors to include Bumrah on the Test tour of South Africa. The rest, as they say is history.

Jasprit  Bumrah's Test Career: A god in Making

Bumrah finished his first year as a Test bowler with 48 wickets in just 9 matches, and the hallmark spell came in Melbourne, where he decimated the Aussies with figures of 6/33.

2019 was again special for Bumrah, as he bagged his maiden Test hat-trick, a feat he achieved against the West Indies in their own backyard. He finished the year with 14 wickets in 3 matches, at an an average of 13.14. He hardly played matches in 2020 due to Covid, but was back at his best in 2021, when India had a tough tour of England.

The tour was significant, not only for the Indian side, but also for Bumrah. He was India's best bowler on that tour, and in the fourth Test at the Oval, the right-arm pacer created history by becoming the quickest Indian pacer to bag 100 Test wickets, a feat he achieved in 24 matches.

Jasprit Bumrah's 100th Wicket: A Landmark Achievement 

Jasprit bumrah's 100th Test WicketJasprit bumrah's 100th Test Wicket

The milestone occurred during the 4th Test, and Bumrah's 100th victim was England's Ollie Pope. With the match evenly poised and Pope standing tall against the Indian bowlers, Bumrah produced a moment of magic.

From over the wicket, he bowled full and it nipped back in sharply as Pope failed to get a bat on it. The ball takes a deflection off the back-leg and goes onto to shatter the stumps as Pope looked shell-shocked.

Due to Bumrah's brilliance in the second innings, India were able to take a 2-1 lead in the series. England needed 368 to take a lead, but Bumrah turned the tides with back-to-back wickets of Pope and Jonny Bairstow as India won the game by 157 runs.