When up against the best, the competitive juices always tend to overflow. Sport is filled with examples of how a rivalry between top players brings the best out of both. We used to see it happen when Kapil Dev and Imran Khan played against each other or either went into a contest against Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee’s teams. Between the four, there were constant comparisons of who’s the best all-rounder. It was the same when Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara shared the turf, vying for the tag of the best batter of their era.
Jasprit Bumrah has just become the first Indian fast bowler ever to become No.1 in the ICC Test ranking — he is also the first bowler to have topped the rankings in all three formats. Only three batters — Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Virat Kohli — have had this distinction. This rise to the top is reward for his sensational spell in the Visakhapatnam Test win. It is also a great occasion to compare him with England’s sultan of swing, James Anderson.
By age, Anderson is Bumrah’s super senior, but both stand out as leaders of their respective attacks, showing a developing rivalry. Anderson, 41, is a legend while Bumrah, 30, is the current sensation. Are they in the ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ mode? Starting with 2018 in England, it is the fourth series they are contesting.
When asked by commentator Harsh Bhogle after the second Test, Bumrah played down their personal rivalry but the way the pacers bowled during the Visakhapatnam game left everyone spellbound. Bumrah is the leading wicket-taker in the series, with 15 in two Tests. And after his Player-of-the-Match winning nine-wicket match haul, he has become the first Indian fast bowler to be ranked No.1 in Tests (and the first bowler ever to have attained No.1 ranking in all three formats).
In his glittering 184-Test career, Anderson has held the No.1 spot many times. He looked in fine form in his first outing of the tour at Visakhapatnam, leaving connoisseurs eagerly looking forward to what the two have to offer in the remaining three Tests.
With the series being played on typical sub-continent pitches, these Tests were expected to be about the spinners. But the two champions have taken the surface out of the equation. At Vizag, Anderson turned back the clock by applying relentless pressure from the start during a performance of 25-4-47-3, backing it up with 10-1-29-2 in the second innings.
Bumrah was unplayable on way to six wickets in the first innings during which he owned Joe Root before inducing an edge to slip, flattened Ollie Pope’s stumps with a searing reverse-swinging yorker and again dismissed Ben Stokes. That spell gave India a 143-run first-innings lead and set up the series-levelling win.
For the first two days of the series, there was no sign that the pacers would have a say. England had not even felt the need to pick a second pacer as Anderson (who was bowling left-arm spin while warming up) was left on the bench at Hyderabad. For India, R Ashwin and Co expectedly did the bulk of the bowling. Then, on the third day after lunch, Bumrah started to make things happen.
In an adrenaline-pumping performance, he put on an exhibition of reverse swing. Bowling dead straight, almost every ball felt like an event during that five-over burst. With England scoring at more than five per over, Bumrah sent left-hand opener Ben Duckett’s off-stump cartwheeling at the total of 113 with a perfect set-up. Duckett had played a cover drive earlier in the over, but this length ball came in with the angle.
Even Root was done in by Bumrah’s reverse swing. After testing him with a yorker, the modern great was nailed in front by a 140.4kph inswinger that kept coming in with the angle. Trying to clip it away, Root got slightly off-balance to be beaten on the inside edge. India lost by 28 runs, but Bumrah with six wickets showed he would be a factor.
ANDERSON’S WARNING
Written off after his 2023 Ashes haul of just five wickets in four Tests, he was struggling with his run-up, and thus his action, Anderson surprised everyone by how sharp he was at Vizag. The control over line, length and movement was there to see to go with the nip off the surface. He worked up a good pace too – hitting 139kph with a few deliveries.
The England maestro set the tone on Day 3 in Vizag with a gem that sent Rohit Sharma’s off-stump cartwheeling. It was a trademark Anderson special – the ball leaving the batter just a shade after pitching to beat the bat and take the stump. Soon, he set up young Yashasvi Jaiswal outside the off-stump to carve open India’s top-order.
There hasn’t been much to separate between the two. In their first contest, in 2018 in England, Bumrah took 14 wickets in three games and Anderson 24 in five (England won the series 4-1). In 2020-21 in India, Bumrah took four in two games, Anderson eight in three (India won 3-1). In 2021 in England, Bumrah had 23 in five Tests, Anderson 21 in five (series ended 2-2).
DIFFERENT STYLES
The two champions using their craft to set-up batters has been a treat to watch. Apart from reverse swing, Bumrah is using change of pace to telling effect, the slower one and the quicker one. Anderson has drawn the batters to their doom by shifting line and length ever so subtly.
Against Pope at Vizag, Bumrah got him with a searing yorker, beating him for pace. In the second innings, he foxed Ben Foakes with a slower ball to accept a return catch. Bumrah’s wrist position and release point don’t change much, making it difficult for the batters to read which side he would go.
Apart from the hyper-extension of his elbow, he has mastered the difficult art of flicking the wrist to make the ball jag off the turf. Though his front toe on landing isn’t copy-book, Anderson is more classical. He is poetry in motion with a smooth run-up and action, extracting movement in any conditions. He sets up batters, be it their weakness outside off-stump or with the incoming ball. He foxed Gill like he did Kohli at home in 2014, slipping one wider outside off after a series of deliveries on the off-stump line. Against Rohit, he preyed on his weakness against the away swinger.
Anderson, five short of the 700-wicket mark, is the most successful Test pacer by a distance. Bumrah’s action gives him the cutting edge and he is almost unplayable when on song, though it takes a toll on his body. But for the moment, everyone can simply enjoy the two masters at work.
