Whatever may be the outcome of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)  on Monday, and the series itself which will conclude in the first week of the New Year in Sydney, the connoisseurs of the great game will doff  their hat to Jasprit Bumrah. 

Without a doubt, India's fast bowler,.who is the one and only type  in many ways, Bumrah has been a stellar performer with the new ball and the old, and at different passages of each Test match in the Southern  Hemisphere. He had kept India in the fray giving no quarter.

The five-Test series in Australia was publicised as the highlight of the  home summer with the hostilities moving from West to East over a period of 47 days and action starting at the Optus Perth Stadium in Western Australia, a province where the famous Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) ground is located and where fast bowlers met with success and many batters trembled in their boots. That was in the past. The new ground is just few minutes away from the WACA where non-Australian fast bowlers and their ilk have taken 501 wickets in  46 Tests. The Indian has not played a Test at the WACA.

Bumrah is not like a  typecast genuine fast bowler who starts his run up from close to the sightscreen, but bursts from.a short run up  described by New Zealand's former fast bowler Danny Morrison as "neither here nor there". Yet,  the unconventional  Bumrah is as intimidating as a genuine fast bowler who is able to manipulate the seam and bowl at a terrific speed. His awkward action makes it difficult for the batters to pick him.of his hand. 

Without his usual new ball partner Mohammed Shami on this tour.  the burden weighed heavily on Bumrah’s shoulders from the first Test  in Perth. Moreover, in the absence of captain Rohit Sharma, he had to take the additional mental workload as captain. That he did a splendid job of the two tasks to a good measure reflected his unflinching  commitment to be the leader of the bowling pack and being ready to attend to  demanding work as captain. In shory Bumrah gave the impression that he wants to lead the team as full time captain.

Bumrah did not have a good day on the first day of the first Test, his team being shot out for 150 in under 50 overs. But inspite of  a small total to  compete with, the  fast bowler used the ball-weapon to mitigate the earlier setback with a brutal first spell that brought his team back in the contest. Bumrah finished with 5 for 30  to limit Australia’s first innings total to 104. He had plotted singlehandedly to turn the heat on the home team.

His team responded brilliantly with the bat in the second innings  and when Australia’s turn came to bat the second time in pursuit of a massive fourth innings target, he took two vital wickets to put his team on the winning path. His eight scalps in the first Test was just the kind of stuff that imposed pressure on the home team.

Bumrah was in the vanguard of India's bowling in the pink-ball second Test in Adelaide. Though the visitor was outplayed, Bumrah's 4 for 61 pointed to his intense work with the ball that outwitted the likes of Usman Khawaja, Nathan MCSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith and dismissing three of them. His fourth wicket was that of Pat Cummins. 

India lost the second Test, but the talk of the town was all about Bumrah's incisive bowling . He took 6 for 61 and 3 for 18, his first ten wicket haul eluding him. He had bowled 88 overs in six innings for returns of 21 wickets at 10.90. Only.Travis Head and Steve Smith could thwart him with defying and aggressive centuries.

Come the fourth Test at the MCG Bowl, Bumrah was in his elements but not before a young 19 year old Sam Konstas 

had taken his chances to flay  him mixing the daring and unorthodox and copybook shots. Bumrah did not give leeway for the young blood in Konstas to dominatebin the second. He bowled him with a ripper. 

In eight innings Bumrah has bagged 29.wickets with a eight wicket haul at the MCG and  with more Australian wicket remaining to be taken. 

On the fourth day Bumrah crossed the 200 wicket mark in his 44th Test. In three visits to Down Under he has taken his tally to 59 wickets in 11 Tests. No bowler - fast or spin - has taken more wickets tham him in Australia after his Test debut in January 2018. In fact the second best is Mohammed Siraj with 29 wickets, including his three scalps on the fourth day at the MCG.

Bumrah has had modicum support from the likes of Harshit Rana, Akash Deep and Siraj, but he is not complaining. He has been such a wonderful team man. He has already sent down 52.4 overs at the MCG, which  is a little over 60 per cent of the 88 he had bowled together in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. Awesome!