Every now and then, some fans have wondered about the legality of Jasprit Bumrah’s action, due to the hyperextension of his elbow. He must be pretty used to those questions by now, as the very first time he came to a nets session of his early coach Kishore Trivedi, the other boys playing there raised that question.
“Is he throwing or is this a correct action?” Trivedi recalled the questions from other trainees in the first nets session that a young Bumrah attended in Ahmedabad. “When Jasprit first came to the nets, he had this odd action,” he says. “The boys were confused. They were asking me, is he throwing it or is this a correct action? They thought he was throwing it. “It’s an odd action, so the boys were confused.
“I observed his action closely for three days. It was absolutely fine, there was nothing ‘chuck’ about it,” Trivedi recalled to The Telegraph newspaper from the UK. The coach also recalled telling the teenager that ’You should not change your action. That is your weapon. Don’t change anything about it. You can change your line and length, where you aim the ball. But this is your original action, it’s natural. And you never change natural.’
A renowned bowling coach Ian Pont had once taken to the X to clear up the persistent questions on Bumrah’s action: “You can see his arm straight from the wrist to elbow. The rule is when it is above the vertical that the elbow must not bend past 15 degrees. You can clearly see the forward flexion in his arm, which is a hyperextension. This is allowed (a forward bend) for people with hyper-mobile joints.”
“A hyperextension is a movement in a similar direction to the direction of movement – not downward or to the side. This is why Bumrah’s action is classified as legal since it is within the guidelines of hypermobility,” Pont added.
Trivedi also shared with the Telegraph how surprised he was with the pace of the teenager. “But I was also surprised at how much speed he could generate at 16. His run-up was 10 or 12 yards, but he generated so much speed, so the boys were afraid to face him, because it was bouncing so much. And already, he could bowl a very good yorker.”
