Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Having Jasprit Bumrah is like having a cheat code. You hand him the new ball, ask him to bowl in the middle overs, or throw him the ball in the high-risk overs at the death — and he rarely disappoints. England and New Zealand experienced that first-hand in the semi-final and the final of the T20 World Cup 2026, a trophy that Bumrah helped India win on March 8 with a riveting spell of 4/15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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The star India fast bowler finished the tournament as the joint highest wicket-taker, at a ridiculous economy rate of 6.21. Not only did Bumrah take wickets and stop runs, he did so in the toughest overs possible, whenever he was called upon to bowl for India. A majority of his wickets came off a series of slower deliveries — a weapon he used repeatedly, perhaps more than at any other point in his career. That variation became a central theme of his success in the tournament, and we will return to it in detail later.
In this story, we look at the execution of that delivery — how it works, how it differs from others, and how it came into being. To understand that, we go back to the origin of Jasprit Bumrah — the action, the coaching decision behind it, and the exceptional ability to deliver the right ball under pressure.
THE ORIGIN OF JASPRIT BUMRAH’S ACTION
To find Bumrah, we need to travel to the outskirts of Ahmedabad, to the coaching centre of a 79-year-old man — Kishore Trivedi. Bumrah arrived at the doorstep of the coach’s academy because he was a little naughty, unruly at times, and his mother wanted him to channelise some of that energy.
At 16, when Bumrah first joined Trivedi’s academy, he was not particularly serious about his cricket. A tall, lanky bowler with an incredibly unorthodox action would have been a strict no-no for most traditional coaches.
An extremely short run-up — calling it a run-up is a luxury. It was almost a walk until the final three steps. His body position was too stiff rather than relaxed. A hyper-extended elbow made many believe he was chucking the ball. His left hand would come straight in front of him, almost blocking the batter’s view. His wrist position looked one-dimensional, often pointing towards leg slip, suggesting natural inswing. And his release point, far ahead of his head, was as unconventional as it could get.
Sports coaches often work by the coaching manual — correct grip, correct stance, correct run-up, correct arm swing, correct wrist position. In 2009, most coaches in India might have told Bumrah: What is going on here? You need to learn how a proper fast bowler bowls.
Going by conventional coaching wisdom, head coach Kishore Trivedi could easily have tried to rebuild Bumrah’s action from scratch in his first few weeks at the academy. Luckily for India, he had the foresight to throw that template into the dustbin.
“He’s always had this action. The kids told me his action was odd and that he was chucking the ball. I observed him for a week and concluded that his action was fine. I told myself, ‘his action is fine, and he should never change that’. I told him that the batsmen are not reading your action and this is your main weapon,” Trivedi told India Today over the phone from Ahmedabad.
“Imagine if I had changed his action? He would have faltered with his line and length and with that he would have lost his confidence as well. His action was natural. This oddity came naturally to him,” he said.
“Any traditional coach would have asked him to bowl closer to his ears or change his release point, but I was not interested in that. I let him be,” the 79-year-old added.
In an old video, Bumrah once said that his action might have been shaped by watching too many bowlers on television. Perhaps one night, dreaming about playing cricket with his friends, he ended up jumbling several actions together in his head — a short run-up like Wasim Akram, a strong brace of the front leg like Brett Lee, and the wrist cocked, ready to unleash the ball.
But the rhythm and control were not natural. Those had to be built.
When Bumrah first trained under Trivedi, his pace alone scared the other kids at the academy. Like most young fast bowlers, his go-to delivery was the bouncer — a ball designed to intimidate batters. Given that his release point was far ahead of his head, unlike other pacers who release the ball more vertically, Bumrah’s deliveries often reached the batter slightly quicker.
“When he came in, his confidence was striking. He bowled well and he bowled fast. He used to bowl a lot of bouncers. But with time he learnt accuracy — stump to stump. Once the accuracy arrived, I taught him the yorker, and then he learnt the art of swinging the ball,” Trivedi said.
“Naturally he was an inswing bowler, and he later learnt how to swing the ball away from the batter,” he added.
Trivedi kept Bumrah’s action untouched and worked only on his skills. First, he asked the young pacer to develop a reliable stock ball — one that would land on a good length and threaten the top of off stump. Then came the yorkers, then the slower balls, and then the ability to swing the ball both ways.
“It was an odd action. His left hand used to fall in front of his eyes. But why is that a problem if he is bowling well? I think other coaches would have changed his release position and the angle of his arm. But I did not. As long as he was troubling the batters, I did not mind,” Trivedi said.
BREAKING DOWN JASPRIT BUMRAH’S ACTION
Fast bowling coach Stuart Barnes from the UK, who works with county cricketers, explained in one of his Instagram videos that if one were to break down Bumrah’s action and freeze the moment just before release, the biomechanics of his body actually resemble those of most fast bowlers.
Barnes believes the action looks unusual largely because Bumrah walks in slowly before suddenly delivering the ball at speeds touching 145 kmph.
“If the outcome — the delivery — is good and the action is healthy, even though it might be different, I’m excited by that. Because difference is good. It can mess with a batter’s timing — their backswing, their foot movement, their triggers,” Barnes told India Today.
But what exactly is a bad action?
“Things that I look for are the direction the bowler runs in. Are they running towards the target? Are they upright? How do they move? What does the action tell me about their movement? Do they move well? Do they run well? And are they healthy in their action?”
“An unhealthy action is generally a misalignment, as well as a lateral lean — like a fall-away at the point of release,” he added.
According to Barnes, Bumrah has none of those problems.
In the early days of Bumrah’s career, many former fast bowlers doubted whether he would last. With such a short run-up, some believed his back would eventually break down under the demands of international cricket.
Yes, injuries have happened. But a decade into international cricket, Bumrah remains the best fast bowler of his generation — and perhaps one of the finest bowlers the game has seen.
And in the 2026 T20 World Cup, that entire system of deception — the unusual action, the late release point, and the shortened reaction time — came together in one devastating weapon: Bumrah’s slower ball.
THE MAGIC SLOWER BALL
As mentioned earlier, one of Jasprit Bumrah’s biggest weapons in the T20 World Cup final was the slower ball — or rather, a family of slower balls.
In modern T20 cricket, almost every pacer’s go-to variation is the slower delivery. However, the difference is that while many bowlers attempt it, Bumrah executes it with far greater control and possesses multiple variations of it.
Take Matt Henry for example. He did not waste much time resorting to slower balls in his opening spell of the final. The same was true for Lockie Ferguson. The difference between them and Bumrah, however, was stark. Henry conceded at an economy of 12, Lockie at 24, while Bumrah’s was a jaw-dropping 3.75.
It would not be far off to say that what Bumrah did in the semi-final and the final bordered on sorcery.
Against England, he bowled his off-cutter, running his fingers sideways across the ball. The second variation came with a slight wrist flick, which made the ball rotate from left to right while keeping the axis straight — much like a baseball pitch.
Not only did he mix up his pace, these deliveries were also bowled on different lengths, which confused the batters.
Throughout the semi-final and the final, no one could read him.
In the final against New Zealand, Bumrah began with slower deliveries into the pitch and then gradually went fuller and fuller, eventually targeting the blockhole.
In both games, Bumrah picked up wickets with his very first ball — slower deliveries to Harry Brook and Rachin Ravindra.
His decisive spells at the death eventually sealed both matches.
So where does this slower ball come from? Why is it so effective?
Partly, it comes from his unusual action. Partly, it comes from his remarkable ability to read the game.
When Stuart Barnes was asked to explain it, his voice was filled with admiration.
“He hides his variations so well because he has a slower run-up than normal. It can really mess with a batter’s timing.
“He has some amazing cutters. They don’t necessarily cut off the pitch, but he has speed variation. So his deception is in air speed, not necessarily in how the ball reacts off the surface.
“He does have a unique action — we all know that. And because he releases the ball so far in front of the crease, it shortens the reaction time from release to when it reaches the batter.
“Batters will do their homework on Jasprit Bumrah, just like they would on any bowler. But he’s an absolute expert — a genius — at making a decision and changing the delivery late in his action while still executing it perfectly.
“Where he is now, at the very top of his game, is not a coincidence. It would have been designed. He would have been training for this years ago. It’s repetition. It’s purposeful practice. It’s the work he put in when nobody else was watching.
“He hides his variations so well. A lot of it is simply that he is brilliant at executing — the line, the length, the feel of the release from his fingers. He’s an absolute joy to watch. It’s almost like you know what’s coming, but batters are powerless to do anything about it because his execution is so good.”
KISHORE TRIVEDI’S GENIUS
And that is perhaps where Kishore Trivedi’s real genius lies. In a small coaching centre in Ahmedabad, in an era largely devoid of video analysis, he realised that Bumrah did not need to change his action at all. What he needed instead was repetition — the grind of bowling his best balls over and over again.
Even during the T20 World Cup 2026, Bumrah often trained alone under the watch of bowling coach Morne Morkel. The two would decide what to work on, and Bumrah would execute it in the nets. If the pacer felt satisfied with his output — even if it was just 12 balls — he would walk away from the nets.
What began as an odd action at a small academy in Ahmedabad has now become one of the most recognisable bowling styles in world cricket. Kishore Trivedi’s decision to leave Bumrah’s action untouched allowed the fast bowler to build a game around his natural strengths.
Years later, with batters across the world still struggling to pick his variations, that decision continues to pay off.
The action that once looked strange now delivers one of the most feared slower balls in cricket — bowled by perhaps the most dependable fast bowler India has ever produced.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
