After over 300 days of watching him on the cricket pitch, Jasprit Bumrah will triumphantly return for the T20I series against Ireland starting August 18.

September 2022 was the last time we saw BOOM BOOM do the trademark run-up, the unorthodox right-arm action, the inch-perfect length locked to break through opposition batters. As cricket fans, we really missed it!

Actually a comeback was on the cards as early as the home series against Sri Lanka in January. But, with 2023 being a crucial year in white-ball cricket for India, the larger goal was set - Get Bumrah ready for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.

A string of injuries over the years - fractured left thumb (2018), lower-back stress fracture (2019), abdominal strain (2021) - was perhaps the lessons for our talismanic bowler to understand that biding time and undergoing surgery for a long-standing back problem was best for the foreseeable future.

The road to recovery saw Jasprit Bumrah absent from India’s challenge at the 2022 T20 World Cup, the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the 2023 WTC Final. A key pillar of strength in the Blue and Gold of Mumbai, the 29-year-old left a sizable void in the 2023 edition of the IPL. 

But, the setback was a prologue for a bowler who has adopted the mantra of ‘Keep evolving as a bowler’. The narrative, now, is that he is up and running with the ball after undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

The epilogue? Well, you can guess it, right, Paltan? Toe-crushing, ankle-twisting deliveries, the ball clipping the stumps and a sea of blue chanting, Booooom, Boooom, Boooomrahhh!!!