Jasprit Bumrah is God. Jasprit Bumrah is water. Bumrah could be anyone and anything he would have wanted. Still, he chose to be an Indian cricketer and a fast bowler and decided that he would eat the Australians for lunch, breakfast and dinner on the ongoing tour Down Under. Bumrah has 29 wickets to his name in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 when the second-highest bowler on the list hasn't even crossed 20, tells you everything you want to know about the level he is operating.
After sending back the teenager Sam Konstas, Bumrah got back into his elements with the wicket of Travis Head as the Indian vice-captain decided to take matters into his own hands, not for the first time. With Head's wicket, Bumrah completed 200 wickets in Test cricket. He became the fastest Indian pacer to achieve the milestone (in 44 matches) as he went past Kapil Dev (50 matches). Bumrah also went past the likes of Glenn McGrath and Imran Khan (45 matches each) to get to the milestone.
This is just the start. At 8,484 balls, which Bumrah took to get to the milestone, he was the fourth fastest in terms of balls bowled to get to 200 Test wickets. With Head's wicket, Bumrah also got to 72 scalps for the current WTC cycle, the most by an Indian bowler in a cycle as he went past R Ashwin's 71 in the inaugural cycle in 2019-21.
Most wickets in a single World Test Championship cycle for India
74 - Jasprit Bumrah (in 27 innings) - 2023-25
71 - R Ashwin (in 26 innings) - 2019-21
63 - R Ashwin (in 26 innings) - 2023-25
61 - R Ashwin (in 26 innings) - 2021-23
54 - Ravindra Jadeja (in 25 innings) - 2023-25
Fastest Indians to 200 wickets in Tests
R Ashwin - 37 matches (vs NZ, 2016)
Ravindra Jadeja - 44 matches (vs SA, 2019)
Jasprit Bumrah - 44 matches (vs AUS, 2024)
Harbhajan Singh - 46 matches (vs ZIM, 2005)
Anil Kumble - 47 matches (vs ZIM, 1998)
Fastest to 200 Test wickets (balls bowled)
7,725 - Waqar Younis (Pakistan)
7,848 - Dale Steyn (South Africa)
8,153 - Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)
8,484 - Jasprit Bumrah (South Africa)
With all that, Bumrah is also the best Test bowler with 200 wickets in terms of average at 19.39 in 85 innings. No other bowler with 200 Test wickets has a bowling average below 20.
The magician, however, didn't just end there. Bumrah came with a bagful of tricks sending back Head, Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey in quick succession as India had Australia on the mat suddenly at six wickets down before Marnus Labuischagne staged his side's comeback to get through to tea on Day 4.
