I admire Johnson, Akram and Lee: Jasprit Bumrah

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah has had a dream start to his international career. In such a short span of time, the Mumbai Indians pacer has seen a steady rise in his career as a cricketer. The promising young talent recently revealed that he admires Mitchell Johnson, Wasim Akram and Brett Lee and has been looking up to them as a young cricketer.

“I admire a lot of bowlers. My all-time favourite bowlers are Mitchell Johnson, Wasim Akram and even Brett Lee. I used to watch their videos and I used to bowl,” Bumrah said at a press conference in Mumbai.

Having played alongside the likes of Lasith Malinga and Mumbai Indians, Bumrah said it helped him to develop his game and learn new things, playing alongside the stalwarts of the game. “I had to learn from everybody — from Mitchell Johnson I have learnt a lot. I have learnt a lot from Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan. Whenever I go to a senior bowler, I ask questions. There is not a particular role model but I try to learn from any senior bowler who has played international cricket.”

Mumbai Indians the two-time winners, and defending champions have found some momentum after a slow start to the season and are in the fifth spot with six points from seven games, with three wins and four losses. Mumbai Indians will face the Kolkata Knight Riders at Mumbai on Thursday.

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The 22-year old fast bowler also said that he had a good learning experience while playing in Australia and then playing in the Asia Cup and the World T20. “I feel really nice because you get to learn a lot. From Australia I learnt quite a lot, then Asia Cup, Sri Lanka series. We had a lot of series. From the Indian team I learnt quite a lot because many senior players are also there with me,” he said.

“I have always looked to learn from everybody. That experience really helped. Now in the T20 format I have played so many matches in international cricket. I am trying to carry that experience in the IPL as well.”

Speaking on injured veteran pacer Malinga, who has helped him a lot during his stint in IPL, Bumrah praised the Sri Lankan right-armer for valuable tips.

“He (Malinga) is a world-class bowler so you always miss him. But we have been doing well in the bowling department. Mitchell McClenaghan has been doing really well for us, as did Tim Southee. So as a bowling group we have been doing really well,” he said.

When asked the secret behind his yorker? Bumrah said, “You cannot master anything, but I still try to practice and try to execute. With only one ball you cannot be successful. So I try to mix my pace and I try to use the yorkers. “

He even credited his success to playing with the tennis balls a lot. “I used to play tennis ball cricket quite a lot before playing serious cricket. Over there you bowl yorkers, so maybe that could be a reason I bowl yorkers. But it is very difficult to bowl, continuously you have to practice and then it could be helpful for you,” the Gujarat bowler added.

Speaking about his plans on different batsmen, he said the plan differs from player to player.

“It is different for different batsmen. Some batsmen are good against yorkers, some aren’t good… some are good against the slower balls. We have bowlers’ meetings. We plan with the coaches. We see videos. So, that is the way we plan for every batsman wherever we go. We discuss…I’ve my ideas. I ask my bowling coach Shane Bond also. We sit down together, think and then we make a final call,” Bumrah concluded.

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