'Every game that he has been part of, where India has won across formats, you will see that Bumrah has left a big imprint on that game.'
Former national selector Jatin Paranjape hailed Jasprit Bumrah as a genuine match-winner across formats after his stunning bowling performance powered India to an incredible victory in the first Test against Australia in Perth.
Paranjape believes India's come-from-behind win in Perth after being bowled out for 150 wouldn't have been possible without Bumrah, who picked eight wickets in the match, including a five wicket haul in the first innings.
The 52-year-old former Mumbai batter says while Bumrah impressed as the captain in the first Test, the question of him taking over the Test leadership role permanently from Rohit Sharma depends on his availability.
"Bumrah the bowler is more important to India than Bumrah the captain," Jatin Paranjape tells Rediff.com's Harish Kotian.
It was a stunning comeback by India in Perth despite missing a couple of key players and after their shocking whitewash suffered against New Zealand at home. This would rank as one of the greatest victories in India's Test history. What would say made the turnaround possible?
A similar victory in Australia comes to mind when Kapil paaji bowled India to a famous victory during the third Test match in the 1980-81 tour of Australia. Kapil paaji, bowling with an injury, picked up five wickets as India defending a low total of 143 bowled out Australia for 83.
In the Perth victory, there was one architect, which is Jasprit Bumrah. He is an absolute one-man army!
If it had not been for Bumrah, we would have been staring at a 150 or a 200 run lead in the first innings. I think Australia would have got around 300 in response to our 150 and then it would have been a big task for us.
It was an one-man army in this Test match if you ask me.
Would you rate Jasprit Bumrah as one of India's greatest match-winners in recent years along with being one of the best fast bowlers in the world?
I think you said it. We now need to look at Bumrah in terms of a match-winner. Every game that he has been part of, where India has won across formats, you will see that Bumrah has left a big imprint on that game.
Even in a 20 over game he has come and bowled a couple of tight overs to keep the runs down or picked a crucial wicket in a Test match.
I would say he is the best fast bowler in the world currently, no doubt about it.
Is he the greatest fast bowler India has produced?
His trajectory is going really strong. I would just wait for another year or two for us to compare him to Kapil paaji for example. He is the best bowler in the world currently and Wasim Akram also said that twice or thrice while doing commentary for the Perth Test.
People might say Pat Cummins or Josh Hazlewood or Mitchell Starc they are also good, but they are surrounded by superb bowlers in their team. But here you have Bumrah working with two inexperienced bowlers and leading the charge in such a way that he himself is enough for the opposition.
You were a selector before and there must have been discussions about Bumrah's workload when you were picking the Indian teams.
Talking about the workload factor, do you see Bumrah playing all five Tests or should he be given a break in one of the games?
He will definitely play the remaining four Tests, hope he doesn't get injured. Rohit is back and the captaincy responsibility goes off Bumrah. The added responsibility of captaincy can be tiresome. He can now just focus on his bowling in the next four Tests which in a way is workload management.
Bumrah's captaincy skills came in for a lot of praise in the Perth Test. With Rohit nearing the end of his career, do you see Bumrah taking over the Test captaincy permanently?
It all depends on what state his body is.
Bumrah the bowler is more important to India than Bumrah the captain. They will have a chat with him and see how he is feeling. If he is not playing all the time, then it becomes tough to appoint that player as captain. You need someone who will be around all the time.
For now, they won't be thinking that far down the line, they will just be thinking about the next Test match.
You said before the start of the series, you had said 'Australia, watch out for Virat Kohli' and that is what happened in Perth. Kohli seems to have rediscovered his batting form as he hit a superb century in the second innings.
How big a boost is Kohli returning to form for India as he loves playing Australia?
I am saying this again 'Watch out for Virat Kohli in the next four Tests also'. I think Kohli will score two more centuries in this series.
What made such a superb comeback possible for Kohli, who struggled for runs in the New Zealand series?
I would say consistency of process is just unbelievable. Just waking up and doing the same thing again and again, I think the great champions have this way of doing the boring things really, really well and very consistently.
Kohli does the boring things most consistently in the world of cricket right now and that brings about such a comfort when he is batting.
If you see when he is batting, it is like he is having a practice session. That consistency of routine is the secret sauce of Virat Kohli's success.
You must have seen Yashasvi Jaiswal quite closely since his young days when he started playing for Mumbai. He scored a fine century in Perth to guide India to a big total in the second innings in his first Test match in Australia against a world class bowling attack.
Is he the next big thing in Indian cricket, a player who could excel in all formats?
Absoutely! I think he is a three formats player. Being a left-hander adds a great advantage to the batting line-up. What will really scare the bowlers in the next 10, 15 years that he has a gear to go from defence to attack in a second basically. He could be defending for 3, 4 overs and then suddenly he could hit 3, 4 sixes. He has that power, he has that all round game, he has a front foot and back foot game.
He is an extremely dangerous player. The future is for him to build. If he takes a leaf out of Virat's book, and I know that Yashasvi is a disciplined and very hard working guy, I think he along with Shubman Gill, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy and K L Rahul coming back into form, it harbours really well for Indian cricket.
With Rohit Sharma coming back for the second Test, it is a good headache for the Indian team. Should he open in Adelaide? What about K L Rahul who played two good knocks in Australia?
I would say there are two scenarios. If Rohit opens, then K L will bat at No 5 which was going to be the case had he played in Perth. So Rahul will play at No 5 in place of Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant goes to No 6 and Shubman Gill in place of Devdutt Padikkal.
Or if they feel that let's not touch this opening partnership then you might have Rohit batting at No 5. Either way it doesn't matter but I think Rohit will open with Jaiswal.
The Adelaide match is a pink-ball Test. Do you see India retaining their bowling attack or could they look to bring in one of their seniors spinners in Ravindra Jadeja or Ravichandran Ashwin?
I feel India will play the same team in Adelaide.
