Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah's action should not work: a short shuffle, a low slingy release, a hyperextended elbow. Yet it makes him nearly impossible to pick, and paired with vicious reverse swing at pace it has made him the most complete fast bowler of his generation. He burst onto the scene as a teenager with Mumbai Indians in the IPL in 2013, and within a few years had become the fulcrum of India's attack across formats.

His Test debut in South Africa in January 2018 set the pattern: heavy workloads, quick adaptation, wickets everywhere. In 2019 he took a hat-trick against West Indies in Kingston, and at that year's World Cup he was India's leading bowler with 18 wickets. In white-ball cricket, his ability to land yorkers at will in the death overs remains the standard the rest of the world measures itself against.

Injury keeps interrupting him. A back stress fracture in 2019 and another in 2022, which required surgery, cost him more than a year of cricket, including the 2022 T20 World Cup. Each comeback has strengthened his case: he was player of the tournament as India won the 2024 T20 World Cup, and his 32 wickets in the 2024-25 Test series in Australia rank among the great away performances by an Indian quick. Beyond the numbers, his greatest influence may be inspiring a generation of Indian kids to dream of bowling fast.