Lasith Malinga, Bumrah's mentor, bowls at Wankhede, 2012. Photo: AroundTheGlobe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Why Jasprit Bumrah Is Still the Bowler Every Batter Fears
In a league built for batters, one fast bowler still makes captains change their plans. Here's how Jasprit Bumrah became the most valuable bowler in the IPL.
T20 cricket is supposed to be a batter's game. Boundaries are shorter, pitches are flatter, and since 2023 teams have had an extra batter through the Impact Player rule. Yet whenever Jasprit Bumrah has the ball in his hand, the scoring slows down.
A one-club bowler
Bumrah made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2013 against RCB. His first wicket was Virat Kohli. He has played for no other IPL team since. He was in the squad for all five of Mumbai's title wins, and ahead of the 2025 mega auction, Mumbai retained him at the top price slab of ₹18 crore.
What makes him so hard to face
- The action. A short, stuttering run-up and a hyperextended elbow release the ball later than batters expect, and from an unusual angle.
- The yorker. He can land the ball at the base of the stumps under the most pressure, which makes him the best death bowler of his generation.
- The slower ball. His changes of pace come out of the same action, so batters can't pick them early.
- The control. His economy rate has stayed low across more than a decade, even though he bowls the hardest overs: the powerplay and the death.
Most bowlers try to limit the damage at the death. Bumrah can win the game there.
The 2019 final
The 2019 final against Chennai showed exactly why Mumbai value him so highly. Defending just 149, Bumrah bowled four overs for 14 runs and took two wickets, including a tight penultimate over. His mentor Lasith Malinga defended the last ball, and Mumbai won by one run. Bumrah was named Player of the Match.
Five for ten
His best IPL figures came in May 2022 against Kolkata Knight Riders: 5 wickets for 10 runs in four overs, one of the finest bowling spells the league has seen. It came in a match Mumbai still lost, in a season when they finished bottom of the table. Even at their lowest point, he was the one player every opponent had to plan around.
The Malinga connection
Bumrah's early years at Mumbai overlapped with the end of Lasith Malinga's career. Malinga was the league's original death-overs specialist, with an unusual action of his own and a devastating yorker. Their partnership at the end of an innings won Mumbai several titles, and the lessons Bumrah learned from him are still visible every time he bowls.
Why he matters even more now
Batting line-ups are deeper than ever, and 200 is now a par score at many grounds. That makes a bowler who can reliably go at less than a run a ball at the death more valuable than ever. It is why, more than a decade after his debut, captains still plan their innings around Bumrah's four overs.
Read next: the IPL record book, and the bowling marks Bumrah is chasing.