Tendulkar slams Bumrah trolls: ‘just a coincidence that India won Tests he didn’t play’

[u/5missedcallsfromBCCI]

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/tendulkar-slams-bumrah-trolls-just-a-coincidence-that-india-won-tests-he-didnt-play-10172846/

[u/spongey1865]

It's such a weird phenomenon. But sometimes something that seems like a pattern has no meaning. Bumrah is clearly awesome and in the future India will be more likely to win when he plays than when he doesn't.

It's a bit like India losing 15 tosses in a row. Sometimes statistical weirdness happens and there's no rhyme or reason to it.

[u/navneetrai → u/spongey1865]

This record is kind of baffling, but I think probably oppositions are now playing Bumrah out and taking more risks against other bowlers when he is playing.

I think Indian Bowlers perform worse when batters take them on. That will also partially explain success of players like Duckett, Brook and Head against India, as these players have a naturally aggressive style of play.

[u/Wetness_Pensive → u/navneetrai]

Indeed. This is often what happens when a bowler develops a scary reputation; his partners pick up wickets for pressure he builds up.

[u/Nanoputian8128 → u/navneetrai]

Idk if that is really the case, especially for this series. The way Eng bat, they were taking on all the bowlers regardless of whether Bumrah was there or not. Especially in the fifth test, they were going hard at the bowlers so can't say they were taking less risks compared to when Bumrah was playing.

I think really it is just a mixture of coincidence, other bowlers stepping up (Siraj in particular seems to step up with the greater responsibility), the opposition just not playing as well. Don't forget, for the last test Eng was missing Stokes and lost Woakes half way through which were huge blows that easily offset the no Bumrah advantage.

[u/gpranav25 → u/navneetrai]

Actually there is some level of explanation. Bumrah is usually rested against smaller teams and/or in really spin friendly pitches at home. Obviously India has a good record in such conditions.

[u/navneetrai → u/gpranav25]

I think we will probably see similar stats only for SENA tests too. India has not been playing too many easy tests lately with only only two non SENA away tests per WTC cycle and Bumrah definitely did well in WI

[u/causaloptimist → u/spongey1865]

I think in this case there may be an actual explanation. I think Bumrah is just so good that the rest of the bowling unit and even some of the batting unit subconsciously doesn’t step up as much as they can. Siraj’s famous line “I only believe in Jassi bhai” captures the phenomenon. A similar thing happened at Gabba where the entire team was forced to step up due to key players sitting out.

[u/Black_Mamba265 → u/causaloptimist]

I actually think it’s different, due to how godly this man is batsmen try to just play him off and not take him on so they try to settle themselves with dots and singles during his overs instead and then go on to attack the other bowlers who are trying their best too but and I’ve seen this a lot this series with players like Siraj where even when they bowl well the fielding lets them down horribly. Take headingley for example Siraj was bowling as well as Bumrah he managed to get a lot of false shots against Root and etc but whenever he made those opportunities the fielding let him down

[u/g0_west → u/Black_Mamba265]

I think if Bumrah and Siraj could link up mentally they could become like Broad and Anderson in terms of working in two bowlers as one. Broad and Anderson often talk about how when they were bowling together they'd work the pressure to try and take a wicket between them rather than just themselves each trying to take solo wickets. If Siraj and Bumrah linked up like that they'd be unstoppable. For example if Bumrah can hold down the runs because the batters don't want to chance it against him, they can build that scoreboard pressure and Siraj can tempt them well enough to strike and get edge. I think we'll see it in the next few years (if Bumrahs body doesn't let him down), it seems like India is moving much more towards a team mindset than an individual one. They're the same age too

[u/Black_Mamba265 → u/g0_west]

I saw glimpses of that this series but nothing came of it because once again shitty fielding screwed the pooch if India is able to tighten their fielding and make it like we’re playing 11 Jadeja’s this could totally happen

[u/barath_s → u/Black_Mamba265]

I think one should consider bringing in Bumrah as a first change bowler ...Let's experiment with this.

[u/Black_Mamba265 → u/barath_s]

Giving Siraj that opportunity to be the main character improves him by leaps and bounds definitely they should look to experiment with this bowling attack either during home tests or the 2 matches vs NZ

[u/svjersey → u/causaloptimist]

I would love to (if I had the time) assess how Indian captains are assigning spells / ends to Bumrah vs other bowlers, and what role they are asking those bowlers to play.

For instance, are our captains just relying on Bumrah to break all partnerships and asking other bowlers to play a containing role. Because then on a net basis, it is counterproductive.

Another lens could be that Bumrah plays the games that are likely to be harder, and so we lose them more.. hard to assess that..

[u/g0_west → u/svjersey]

If I was a captain I'd ask Bumrah to play a containing role and trust him to strike when the iron is hot rather than asking him to go for wickets every over. Let him build pressure, he's good enough that batters can't score off him easily and especially against sides like England, if they go for a maiden every other over, they're more likely to play rash shots against the 2nd bowler to try get some movement on the scoreboard