'He tells me to set the field on my own' - Jasprit Bumrah opens up on bond with Rohit Sharma

Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah hailed his skipper Rohit Sharma for unearthing the potential in him and for backing him at the start of his IPL career with the Mumbai Indians. Bumrah was recently appointed as the vice-captain of the Mumbai Indians and will be playing the deputy role to Rohit in the upcoming IPL 2022 apart from his vice-captaincy stint for India in the ongoing Sri Lanka T20Is.

Bumrah has been a revelation for India since his debut in 2016 and has grown leaps and bounds in terms of taking responsibilities and bowling the tough overs. He has been the go-to man for skippers more often and there is no better exponent of nailing the yorkers in the death overs than Bumrah at the moment. He is one of the toughest bowlers to face with his awkward action and is spot-on with his variations as well.

In the initial days as well, Rohit had a lot of trust in me: Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah, in a chat on Ravichandran Ashwin‘s official Youtube channel, explained how Rohit helped him out during his early days and noted the amount of confidence the former had in him. He added that Rohit believes in his skillset of him right after seeing him bowl in the nets.

“The relationship has been very good since the initial days. When I came into the side, Ricky (Ponting) was the captain but I wasn’t playing regularly. I started playing a lot under Rohit. He had a lot of confidence in me… and he instilled a lot of confidence. He saw me bowling in the nets and saw what kind of skills I have. He always backed me and always told me to believe in myself. In the initial days as well, he had a lot of trust in me. He will give me the important overs and that told me ‘Okay, I can do the job’,” Bumrah told Ashwin.

Bumrah also reckoned about the difficulties of doing the tough job for the side but cherished finding ways to come out of it. He gave an example of Rohit allowing Bumrah to set his own field which shows the amount of trust the skipper has on its premier quick.

“Sometimes, you are still trying to convince that maybe it’s the right call that I’m doing the tough job. But they put you in the tough zone so you find a way how to come out of it. Our relationship remains the same. He has a lot of trust in me to date and we have reached the stage when he tells me to set the field on my own and tell me any changes. The process has worked so far and our relationship has really developed,” he added.