‘Dekhna kal, rocket chodunga’.

Ravi Although Shastri is the king of bombast, he spoke these four words in private, without pomp, to a buddy in Cape Town. On the evening of January 4, 2018, India's then-head coach only said, "Look out for the rocket," despite his friend's urging.

This was not a little rocket. At 1.78 meters, he was a true bundle of raw speed and unrivaled talent. He was seen as a white-ball expert up until that point. When Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut for India as its 290th player on January 5, that notion shifted.

Before that, Shastri and Virat Kohli had carefully avoided the urge to use Bumrah in the five-day format. India was scheduled to host test tours of South Africa, England, and Australia in 2018, making it a historic year for the nation. This perceptive couple saw Bumrah as a powerful, destructive force in Test match play, while the rest of the world thought his talents were best suited for the cut and thrust of limited-overs cricket. See how high the rocket has gone.

Bumrah, who is undeniably the best bowler in the world, took four wickets in his debut Test, and two games later, in Johannesburg, he had his first five-wicket haul. He quickly rose to prominence as the most feared bowler in the Indian lineup, and soon after that, he was the most feared bowler in the world.

A year and a half after the world first learned about Bumrah's Test brilliance, a laid-back, braided boy from Bridgetown made his debut in the England Test XI. Jofra Archer's encounter with red-ball heroics only took three months and a 50-over World Cup winner's medal, unlike the Indian, who had to wait two years between his limited-overs and Test debuts. At Lord's, in his first Test match, he terrified hitters with his scorching pace and unsettling bounce that he appeared to pull off a length with ease. He picked up five wickets during the match, but he was in the news for the horrific hit to the back of the head of the well-set Steve Smith, who was 80 years old at the time. He followed up his six-for-45 in the first innings during his subsequent match in Leeds with another six-for in the last Test, at The Oval. He took 22 wickets in his four Tests, and the cricket community prepared for the enchantment of the two JJs. They were on opposing sides, it's true, but the widespread consensus was that if Jasprit didn't get you, Jofra would.

Jasprit Bumrah vs Jofra Archer at Lord's

The contrast between their professional paths is striking. Bumrah is by far the best bowler of his generation and has only gotten better. He leads the ICC Test bowlers' rankings, beating out legendary players like Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood. With an absurd average of 19.60, Bumrah has taken 210 wickets in 46 tests, claiming a wicket every 42.3 balls. If that depicts a harsh, unrelenting destroyer of batting lineups, there is some justification for it.

Due to back problems that have plagued Bumrah's career, he now needs to be handled with extreme care and caution. However, when compared to Archer, one may see how fortunate India and he have been.

Due to a string of excruciating elbow injuries that have unfortunately hindered his path to greatness, Archer has only appeared in 13 Tests. In February 2021, he played his final Test in Ahmedabad, which was a day-night match in which he and Bumrah combined to bowl only 11 overs. He ran into a roadblock every time it appeared like he was on track to make a Test comeback. From the outside, it was heartbreaking; one can't even begin to comprehend what the 30-year-old must have experienced.

Thankfully now free of injuries, Archer sent Ben Stokes a flood of texts at the beginning of this summer, the majority of which only had one word: Zimbabwe? He was alluding to the unique, four-day Test in Nottingham in late May, but his pleas went unheeded. After that, he played his first county game for Sussex against Durham at Chester-le-Street since the summer of 2021, and his 18 overs were enough for the team management to conclude that he was now ready to resume his career in Test cricket.

In what is sure to be an emotional reunion with the five-day format, Archer will face Bumrah and India on Thursday at Lord's, where it all started for him. Millions of television viewers and thirty thousand people in the stands will get to enjoy the spectacle of two champions – one established, the other less so through no fault of his own – facing off at one of the most famous cricket stadiums. The person who claimed Test cricket needed oxygen.

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