Scientists say that the typical human can recognise 21 distinct facial expressions. After seven years of Test cricket, Jasprit Bumrah has grown to know a good handful of them about as well as any man can, from awe, through disgust, to fear, sadness, surprise and all their many combinations. You would guess it’s been a while since he’s seen a happy batter looking back at him from 22 yards, but if you had the binoculars on Harry Brook first thing on Sunday morning, you could see he was wearing such a big, goofy grin that his teeth were glinting through the gloaming.
You don’t want to kink-shame him, but you’d think there must be easier ways to get your kicks than to go running down the pitch to hit a man bowling 90mph bouncers. But Brook’s brain seems to be wired a little differently. On the third ball Bumrah bowled him on Sunday, he decided to take two quick steps forwards and wallop it through the covers for four.
