Jasprit Bumrah is back after the 2023 World Cup and that’s good news for India. With the Test series against South Africa coming up, Bumrah’s wealth of experience in the Rainbow Nation could do wonders, not only for him and the national team, but also for his other teammates.

Bumrah has toured South Africa two times to play Tests and understands what’s required for a bowler to make the most out of the conditions in the Rainbow Nation. Bumrah is currently sixth in the list of most wickets by an Indian bowler in Tests on South African soil.

He has played six Tests against the Proteas and all of them have been in South Africa. In fact, the now 30-year-old made his debut in South Africa nearly six years ago and hasn’t looked back in his career.

Bumrah has 26 wickets to his name from those six Tests with two five-wicket hauls to his name. Along with Bumrah, only Javagal Srinath, Mohammed Shami, Venkatesh Prasad and Sreesanth have had multiple fifers in South Africa Tests.

In 2018 at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, the Ahmedabad-born Bumrah got his maiden fifer after he finished with figures of 18.5-2-54-5 in the first innings. India won the match by 63 runs, although they lost the series 1-2.

Then in January 2022, Bumrah got his second fifer in South Africa after he had figures of 23.3-8-42-5 at the Newlands in Cape Town. This time around, it was the hosts who won by seven wickets despite Bumrah’s heroics in the first innings.

Advantage for Siraj and others?

Amongst the current set of bowlers for the South Africa Tests, barring Bumrah, only Mohammed Siraj has played Tests in South Africa. But Siraj did not have the best of times last time after he picked up only three wickets from two matches at an average of 51.

Here’s where Bumrah has a role as a mentor, not only for Siraj, but also for the likes of Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur. Bumrah will be the leader of the attack in conditions that are likely to assist fast bowlers. But the bigger task for him is to carry the others with him.

In the absence of Shami, who was India’s top wicket-taker in the South Africa Tests with 14 scalps last time around, Bumrah has a challenge on his shoulders.

Although he hasn’t played any Test cricket since the rescheduled fifth Test against England last year at Edgbaston in Birmingham, he is expected to make hay, bearing in mind the skills he has to succeed consistently at the international level.

The altitude challenge

Bowling in South Africa can be different from bowling in other parts of the world. After picking up his maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs at the Wanderers earier this month, Arshdeep Singh said that he was running out of breath due to the high altitude of the venue.

Before the first Test, Shardul Thakur also talked about the need to get acclimatised to the conditions at high altitude. While life can get tough for a bowler, especially from the subcontinent, Bumrah can step in to share his inputs about how to adjust to the conditions at the earliest.

The opening Test is all set to get underway on December 26 at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. India are yet to win a Test series in South Africa and if India are to turn the tables, Bumrah needs to be at his very best, both as a bowler and as a guide.