5 decisions taken by MS Dhoni which defined the roadmap of Indian cricket

#5 Inducting Jasprit Bumrah into the Indian side

Jasprit Bumrah: The Yorker machine

When Zaheer Khan retired in the shorter formats, India found it difficult to contain rampaging oppositions in the death overs, where teams would make a mockery of the Indian bowling. This continued during the 2013 home ODI series against Australia where targets of 350 were a norm. India had tried a few bowlers in the death overs and none of them had an impact.

This trouble did not surface in the league phases of the 2015 World Cup, where India were clinical in bowling out oppositions. Unfortunately this problem resurfaced against Australia in the all-important semi finals when Australia scored 330 and India lost the match by 95 runs. This continued against South Africa in the home series where AB de Villiers scored runs for fun in the death overs.

When we all felt that this would be a perennial problem for India, MS Dhoni pulled a rabbit out of the hat when he selected Bumrah in the side in 2016 against Australia. He immediately had an impact in Sydney picking 2 for 40 in 10 overs in a game where a total of 660 runs were scored.

Bumrah had much bigger impact in the T20 series by picking 6 wickets and his yorkers and slower ones were too hard to handle. India won the series 3-0 and India had found a new star in Jasprit Bumrah.

Over the years he has become one of the top bowlers in world cricket and he has tasted success in all the 3 formats. He is the number one bowler in ODIs with 78 wickets from 44 matches. Bumrah is seen as one of the trump cards for India going into the World Cup and his performance in the death overs maybe decisive for India.

Bumrah had impressive performances against South Africa and England picking 29 wickets in 6 Test matches and he was also praised for his skill and temperament.

MS Dhoni, who felt Bumrah to be a bit unusual in the IPL, spotted this yorker machine when India were struggling to find a death overs specialist.