Bumrah and Chandrasekhar: Masters of Unplayable Balls

For more than fifty years of following cricket — dreaming about it, playing it, watching it, writing about it, and travelling for it — I have seen very few bowlers who could completely change the mood of a match every time they bowled. Whenever they had the ball in their hand, the atmosphere in the stadium would change instantly.

Fans in the stands would wait with excitement, hoping to see a wicket. Sometimes the crowd would start chanting during the bowler’s run-up, and the sound would grow louder as the bowler reached the crease. People watching on television would also sit up with attention, ready to celebrate if a wicket fell.

Among Indian bowlers, only two have created this special feeling for me: Jasprit Bumrah and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar.

Bumrah is known for his accuracy and rarely bowls a poor delivery. Chandrasekhar, a leg-spinner from an earlier era, sometimes bowled loose balls. But both bowlers shared something very special — the ability to deliver what many cricket lovers call an “unplayable ball.”

An unplayable ball is a delivery so well bowled that the batsman has almost no chance of defending or hitting it. It can swing, spin, or move in a way that surprises the batsman completely. When these bowlers produced such deliveries, even the best batsmen struggled to respond.

Bumrah’s unusual bowling action, pace, and late movement often trouble batsmen in all formats of the game. Chandrasekhar, on the other hand, used sharp leg-spin and unpredictable turn to confuse batsmen during his playing days.

Both bowlers, though from different eras and styles, have one thing in common — whenever they bowled, fans expected something special to happen. That rare ability to create excitement with every ball is what makes them truly memorable in Indian cricket history.