Jasprit Bumrah Pulls Off 'Inverse Don Bradman', Breaks Unwanted World Record
Jasprit Bumrah recorded a bowling average of over 102 in the IPL 026 season, becoming the first bowler in T20 cricket history to concede more than 100 runs for every single wicket taken in a tournament.
- Jasprit Bumrah recorded a bowling average over 100 in IPL 2026, a T20 first
- He conceded 294 runs in 13 matches with an economy rate of 8.37
- Bumrah took only four wickets in the entire tournament
In cricket, a batting average of 100 is the ultimate benchmark. But what if a bowler breaches this figure, not with the bat, but with the ball? For the Mumbai Indians and India pacer Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 campaign turned into a statistical nightmare. He registered a bowling average of over 100, becoming the first bowler in T20 cricket history to concede more than 100 runs for every single wicket taken in a tournament.
In the 13 matches that Bumrah played for Mumbai this year, he conceded 294 runs at an economy rate of 8.37. This was by no means the worst economy in a season where the 200-run mark was routinely breached. However, he could only pick up four wickets during this run, failing to grab more than one in a single game. As a result, his bowling average ended up at a staggering 102.50, alongside a strike rate of 73.50.
While expensive, wicketless spells happen in the high-octane environment of T20 cricket, maintaining such a high average over a prolonged period is unprecedented.
It must also be noted that Bumrah's average and the resulting unwanted record have been calculated using a 40-over minimum qualification criterion. To bowl 240 legal deliveries in a single tournament implies that a bowler is a mainstay in the team and a frontline specialist, which is exactly the case with Bumrah. Surprisingly for the entire cricketing fraternity, the pacer found wickets catastrophically hard to come by despite bowling his full quota of overs for MI this year.
What Led To Bumrah's Historically Poor Figures?
When a bowler is widely regarded as the most dangerous in the world, opposition batting line-ups often collectively decide to neutralise him. Instead of taking risks against his searing yorkers or deceptive changes of pace, batters simply defend, rotate strike, and take five or six risk-free runs an over. Because they refuse to attack him, they rarely give away their wickets.
Furthermore, if the rest of the bowling attack is leaking runs, batters can afford to play Bumrah with absolute caution, which was the case this season. When a bowler goes wicketless across multiple four-over spells while conceding a standard 25 to 30 runs, those runs accumulate heavily over a long tournament. Without the wicket column moving to divide the total runs conceded, the mathematical average soars exponentially.
Ultimately, the fault does not lie entirely with Bumrah; he was able to contain the flow of runs in most matches for MI, demonstrating that his control remained intact even if the wickets dried up.
Mumbai Indians
Jasprit Bumrah