Jasprit Bumrah, India's premier fast bowler, is facing an unusual challenge in his T20 International career in 2025. After years of maintaining an exceptional record, particularly in conceding boundaries, his statistics for sixes given away have seen a significant surge, drawing comparisons to his debut year. This unexpected turn of events has become a major talking point following India's recent T20I loss to South Africa, where Bumrah's performance was notably uncharacteristic. The concern isn't just about the individual match but a broader trend observed throughout the current year, raising questions about his form in this specific aspect of the game.
Uncharacteristic Performance Against South Africa
The second T20 International against South Africa proved to be a difficult outing for the Indian team, culminating in a 51-run defeat. While several Indian players struggled, the performance of star pacer Jasprit Bumrah stood out for all the wrong reasons. In his four-over spell, Bumrah was expensive, conceding 45 runs without picking up a single wicket. What was particularly striking was the number of sixes he gave away in this match, a rare occurrence for a bowler of his caliber. This single match contributed Notably to his escalating tally of sixes for the year, highlighting a deviation from his usual miserly bowling.
A Barrage of Sixes in One Match
The match, played at the new stadium in Chandigarh, saw South Africa post a formidable total of 213 runs, while a major contributor to this imposing score was Quinton de Kock, who unleashed a blistering innings of 90 runs off just 46 balls, featuring seven towering sixes. One of these powerful hits came directly off Bumrah's bowling, while however, de Kock wasn't the only South African batsman to target the Indian speedster. Earlier in the same over, Reeza Hendricks also dispatched a delivery from Bumrah for six runs. The onslaught continued in the 20th over, where Donovan Ferreira managed to hit two. More sixes off Bumrah, bringing his total conceded sixes in that single match to four. This marked the first time in his entire T20 International career that Bumrah had conceded four sixes in a single game.
2025: A Year of Unprecedented Sixes
The four sixes conceded in the South Africa match have Notably impacted Jasprit Bumrah's overall T20 International statistics for 2025. In the current year, the Indian pacer has bowled in 10 innings across 10 matches, delivering a total of 37. 4 overs, while during this period, he has been hit for 10 sixes. While this number might seem relatively low when compared to many other bowlers globally, it's exceptionally high and concerning given Bumrah's established reputation and his historical records. His ability to restrict boundaries, especially sixes, has been a hallmark of his bowling, making this year's figures a stark contrast to his past performances.
A Five-Year Comparison
To put Bumrah's current year's performance into perspective, a look at his recent history reveals a striking anomaly. Between 2020 and 2024, a span of five consecutive years, Jasprit Bumrah bowled in 27 T20 International innings, delivering approximately 100 overs, while across these five years, he conceded a mere 12 sixes in total. This means that in just 10 matches in 2025, he has already conceded 10 sixes, almost matching his combined tally from the previous five years. This dramatic shift underscores the unprecedented nature of his current struggle with conceding maximums, raising eyebrows among cricket analysts and fans alike.
Potential to Surpass Career Records
The current India-South Africa series still has three matches remaining, and given Jasprit Bumrah's recent form in conceding sixes, there is a growing apprehension that his statistics could worsen further. There is a real possibility that he might equal or even surpass. The 12 sixes he conceded over the five-year period from 2020 to 2024. Also, attention is now fixed on whether Bumrah might break a nine-year-old personal record. In 2016, the year of his international debut, he conceded a total of 15 sixes across 21 T20 International innings, while since then, he had never conceded more than four sixes in any single year. The current trajectory suggests that he's on course to either equal or potentially exceed this 2016 record, marking 2025 as a truly challenging year for the usually impenetrable fast bowler, while the cricketing world will be keenly watching his performance in the upcoming matches to see if he can reverse this concerning trend.
