- May 22, 2025
In a format that thrives on disorder, bowlers often only want to survive. T20 cricket, especially in the IPL, is a batter’s game. Slog, slog, thwack. Sixes fly, run rates soar, and bowlers are merely collateral damage. Except there’s that guy – Jasprit Bumrah. Cool as ice, and deadly as a cobra. While others are bleeding runs, Bumrah seems to sip his tea, nod quietly, and methodically dismantle teams. He is back for IPL 2025, except he not only seems to be back, but is working on an entirely different level, and once again showcasing why he is the gold standard of T20 bowling.
Unmatched Consistency Across All Phases
What makes Bumrah genuinely haunting is simply not the Yorkers or toe-crushers. It is also the fact that he will do it to you every time you put him on—whether it’s powerplay, middle overs, or at the death. In the power play, he will strangle openers with accuracy. In the middle, he becomes a control freak. At the death? Best of luck.
Thus far in IPL 2025, Bumrah has bowled 32 overs with ten overs thrown in powerplays, middle overs, and boundaries. Against openers, he has only yielded 40 runs from 44 balls. That’s a run a ball and nobody else who has bowled 44 balls is even close. In middle overs, Bumrah is giving only 4.6 runs per over—the best of any pacer in the middle overs phase of the innings this season. He is also reclaiming “king of death” with the best economy rate of any bowler who has bowled 10 overs or more in the death. Bumrah is not bowling overs right now. He is closing the innings.
The Bumrah Effect: Mumbai Indians’ Death Overs Transformation
It’s not just individual numbers; Bumrah coming back into the mix has changed the Mumbai Indians’ death bowling. Before he came back to the XI, they were giving up over 11 runs at the death, which was the seventh most of all ten teams. After he came back, that number dropped to just over 9 runs, second best in the league, only behind RCB.
This is not a coincidence. He’s the glue that keeps MI’s death bowling attack glued together and frees up other key bowlers like Gerald Coetzee and Shreyas Gopal to simply bowl. In a format of the game where death overs often dictate the result, Bumrah’s presence is like having a cheat code. When Bumrah is in your bowling lineup, he provides an oxygen-like structure, even when you are left defending below-par totals. Like the first game of the season, where they had to defend 155 vs Gujarat Titans, and Bumrah went 2-19 and was nearly victorious at the improbable event of defending a below-par total.
Wankhede Warrior Meets Rahul’s Challenge
The Wankhede is where Bumrah becomes truly unplayable. It’s all flat and great for batting, but it becomes a minefield when Bumrah has the ball. His home average this season is half of his away numbers. He can give under six runs per over with a ball and on a field where bowlers traditionally get hammered.
But first, the blockbuster test – KL Rahul. The elegant batter has scored the second-most runs against Bumrah in the history of the IPL, and averages the second-best against Bumrah. But form is transient, class is permanent – especially Bumrah’s. It will be a key match for both sides, so the focus will undoubtedly be on this epic battle.
So next time someone tells you T20 cricket is a batter’s game… just smile, and whisper one name: Bumrah.
What do you reckon – can anyone get to his level, or are we witnessing a one-man masterclass?
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