Do we like Jasprit Bumrah?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful of his own turned up and there's some real charity work, but one stump-mic remark and two ICC sanctions keep him short of the top.
Bumrah's story is a good one. He came up with a bowling action people said wouldn't last, and he has said that many told him he wouldn't play for long. He learned from Lasith Malinga at Mumbai Indians, debuted for India in January 2016 and kept the action anyway.
The biggest stain is from the Kolkata Test in November 2025. A stump mic picked up him and Rishabh Pant using a term for short people about South Africa's captain, Temba Bavuma. Bavuma later said the pair came and apologised, that he hadn't heard it at the time, and that he holds no grudges.
He has also had two small run-ins with the ICC. In January 2024 he pleaded guilty to inappropriate contact with Ollie Pope in Hyderabad and copped a demerit point. In late 2025 he was charged over a plane-style send-off gesture aimed at Haris Rauf and accepted an official warning with another demerit point. Both are the sort of heat-of-the-moment stuff cricketers get pinged for.
On the harm test, we searched for anything from him on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet and found nothing, good or bad. So there's no slide into grievance or conspiracy and no dodgy company that turned up. That's a thin record on those topics, but it's a clean one.
The good stuff is real if a bit light on detail. CricTracker reports he has backed education for underprivileged kids and helped with relief work, though it gives no amounts or named charities. More recently, a June 2026 video showed him doubling back to sign an autograph for a fan when he was in a rush.
So where do we land? Bumrah passes with an asterisk on both tests. Apologising to Bavuma counts in his favour, but the remark was still a bit much. Nothing here suggests he's anything but a decent bloke who occasionally gets chippy on the field.