Jasprit Bumrah: Keeping calm under pressure and giving Indian cricket new option

Brendon McCullum gave away very little, but it wasn't difficult to read his facial expression once Alex Lees was run-out after a horrible mix-up with Joe Root. Within minutes, for England it had gone from being 'Bazball' to 'Bust ball' as 107 for no loss turned to 109 for 3. Irrespective of the outcome of this Test match, Indian cricket has got a genuine captaincy material in Jasprit Bumrah, who can lead the 'Men in Whites' for a long time to come if the cricketing establishment reposes its faith in him.

Read AlsoBen Stokes' leadership battle with Jasprit Bumrah is fascinating sidelight to entertaining game: Ian Chappell

Jasprit Bumrah's appointment as India's stand-in Test captain is a "courageous decision" based on his "tactical nous", and his leadership duel with England skipper Ben Stokes is providing a fascinating sidelight to an entertaining game in Birmingham, feels the legendary Ian Chappell.

Bumrah, the new 'Smiling Assassin' of Indian cricket, has the potential to become a 'Captain Marvel' if entrusted with full-time responsibility. It will be a steep learning curve for Bumrah and being a fast bowler, there will be spells of injury break as well as workload management hiatuses. But as and when Indian cricket is ready for the next leadership transformation, the slinger from Ahmedabad will be way more worthy than a KL Rahul, who is considered to be Rohit Sharma's natural successor across formats. Virat Kohli was a very different kind of captain, where passion and instinct had a heady liaison and that's how he channelised his energy. In the case of Rohit Sharma, you can perceive him in many ways and try to gauge his body language but he comes from the Mumbai Indians school of captaincy, which is always method over