World T20: Bangladesh victory will hold valuable lessons for Bumrah and Pandya

In their nascent two-month international career, youngsters Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have experienced the ebbs and flows of cricket.

Having been part of all of India's T20Is this year – 14 played, 12 won, two lost – both have tasted convincing victories, silly defeats, high-pressure situations and a major tournament victory.

The last-ball thriller against Bangladesh, a match that was not for the faint-hearted, has only made the two better with experience. They will now be well equipped to handle any situation, come what may.

Bumrah had a disastrous start to the game, but the way he came back was commendable. He mis-fielded the innings' first ball to concede a boundary, dropped a sitter to give Tamil Iqbal a life and then was at the receiving end of the opener conceding four fours. All this happened in the powerplay, and Bumrah wasn't oozing the same calm as we have known him.

That he was still bothered by the misfield and the dropped catch showed in his 16-run over that followed. He would have learnt an important lesson: in the fast-paced T20, there is no time to reflect on the past, and that one has to focus on the next ball.

This is where a captain of the calibre of MS Dhoni came in. "I felt when he went for runs in the second over, he wasn't completely out of it. After that, we had one more conversation, and it definitely worked," Dhoni said after the match.

Worked it sure did, for Bumrah conceded only seven in his third (innings' 17th) and only six in the all-important penultimate over when Bangladesh needed 17 off 12 balls. And, there was no single misfield thereafter.

Everybody credited Pandya for that magnificent final over, and rightly so. But Bumrah's six-run 19th over which had his yorker-length deliveries working well was more crucial.

On his part, Pandya's confidence will only go sky high after he managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the team. And that will rub into his batting too.

"For somebody like a Hardik or Bumrah, this was their first proper interaction with pressure and what it can really do. So I feel they must have learned a lot out of this game," Dhoni said. "These are the games that make you better players, because it pushes you to think in a different way, to have confidence in your strength at a time when it's really needed."

Bumrah's induction into international cricket was in the fifth ODI against Australia in Sydney, where he impressed in a tall-scoring game that India won chasing. Pandya, meanwhile, broke into the scene in the first T20I in three days later.

Pandya seems a maverick, living life to the fullest, more like a West Indian. Until the game against Bangladesh, he may have thought international cricket was an easy cup of tea, thanks to India's remarkable 11 victories in 13 games. But he showed what he was made up of when he had to defend 11 runs and gave nine in the first three deliveries. He turned from villain to hero in a space of three balls.

As Pandya watched Bangladesh's premature celebration when two were needed off three deliveries, with Mushfiqur Rahim exulting and Mahmuddulah signalling to his players to break into a dance, he would have learnt another important lesson, an oft-repeated cliché: the game is not over till the last ball is bowled.

There's little doubting that Bumrah and Pandya hold the torch for India's future – at least in this format – and have certainly impressed in their short duration. And as Virat Kohli said recently, the two have brought in the much-needed X-factor into the team.

"As youngsters, before the 2011 World Cup, I had a lot of anxiety to prove myself, establish myself. These youngsters – Hardik, Bumrah – also have that. But these people have more confidence inside them now than when I came into the team. Because, these guys have played a lot of T20 cricket and played with big stars in the IPL. In this format, their preparation and mental strength are very different than when I came in. These guys have played IPL finals, performed in different situations. So, with that confidence, they've got here, which is a very good thing. They don't see who they are playing, they back their skills, which they did in the IPL.

"And, I think that has been the X-factor for our team in the past few series. Hopefully, their good contribution continues. Their contribution has been more impactful right from Australia," the vice-captain added.

The virtual quarterfinal against Australia on Sunday will be another big test of their characters.

NUMBERS

Bumrah in T20Is

M: 14
Wkts: 17
Best: 3/23
Econ: 6.25
SR: 18.1

Pandya in T20Is

M: 14
Wkts: 13
Best: 3/8
Econ: 7.69
SR: 16.8
Runs scored: 78