Bumrah troubled the England batters across the two innings of the second Test match in Vizag.
In reply to India’s first innings score of 396, the Three Lions were in a strong position at 114/2. However, the right-arm quick produced an incredible spell of reverse-swing bowling to bundle out the visitors for 253, returning with the remarkable figures of 6/45 in 15.5 overs.
In the fourth innings, the tourists were chasing a daunting target of 399 and Bumrah once again emerged as a chief destroyer, picking up three wickets to script India’s series-equalling 106-run victory.
Thanks to his Player-of-the-Match performance in Vizag, Jasprit Bumrah became the first Indian pacer to achieve the No.1 position in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers.
Impressed with his exploits in the second Test, England pacer Ollie Robinson hailed Bumrah as the 'best in the world'.
According to Robinson, Bumrah's yorker to clean up Ollie Pope and then the slower delivery to dismiss Ben Foakes in the second innings is as high a benchmark a pacer can set for himself.
"Jasprit Bumrah has been crazy good I must have said, 'This bloke's the best bowler in the world,' ten times in Vizag. The way he got Pope out, I was like, 'Oh my, this guy's a joke.' And then he got Foakes out with a slower ball and I'm like, 'Oh my goodness, can this guy get any better?' You watch him and you think, 'Wow, he's good.' And then there's something else where you think, 'He's amazing, can he do anything more?'" Robinson wrote for Wisden.
"And as a bowler – Jimmy and I were speaking about it and after the last game – to watch him ply his trade in India is really special because we're always striving to put on a performance like that in these conditions. He's really special to watch. Credit to Jasprit – he's extraordinary. He's definitely given me food for thought in the way that he bowls over here," he added.
After the Vizag Test, former England captain Michael Atherton pointed out the difficulty that English batters are facing in picking up the pace of Bumrah's deliveries.
Robinson highlighted the same aspect of Bumrah's bowling and said: "The way he changes his pace and the different balls that he's got when the game's meandering along, Foakes and Hartley in the last game were playing really nicely in the fourth innings and were playing his on-pace ball fairly well, there was no inkling that he was going to bowl that 120kph cutter that got Foakes. His art of surprise and execution is something that I wouldn't have practiced as much before."
"I practice smashing top-of-off stuff and trying to move the ball either way. I've never really thought about using my T20 skills in a Test match that often. I actually practiced the slower ball that Chris Woakes bowls – not the knuckleball, the one where you lock your wrist and come under it a little bit slower – with Paul Collingwood in Vizag after watching what Bumrah was producing," he further remarked.
The five-match series is evenly poised at 1-1 after the first two Tests. The third Test is slated to be held in Rajkot from February 15.