This action came to me naturally and I stick to it: Jasprit Bumrah

April 4, 2013: A 19-year old right arm fast-medium bowler from Gujarat made his IPL debut for the star-studded Mumbai Indians side despite having played only 9 T20 games in his professional career till that moment. He was up against another mighty team, the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore, where he had to bowl to the likes of Gayle, Dilshan, and Kohli in the shortest of grounds.

MI skipper Ricky Ponting handed the ball in the 5th over to Jasprit Bumrah, who raced in with an unusual bowling action and was hit for a boundary on the very first ball by Kohli. The result was the same on the next ball and also on the 4th ball as Bumrah offered the batsman width. But when he finally brought the ball back into Kohli, the RCB captain had no answer and was caught plumb in front, deceived by the angling action of the youngster.

“There is no memory at all,” says Bumrah who couldn’t recollect when he first bowled or tried that unusual action. “As a youngster, you watch a lot of players playing on the television and try to bowl like them. But I don’t remember when the first I bowled with this action. I didn’t try to copy anyone’s action. This action came to me naturally and I stick to it. Wherever I went, the coaches didn’t try to change my action. They motivated me saying that you can bowl with this action and it will work in your favour.”

Bumrah says that whatever he has learnt is on his own and by watching the game on television but was never under any specialized coach during his childhood. He also said that tennis ball cricket he played while growing up helped his development as a bowler.

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“At a young age, I used to watch a lot of cricket. I never got something like expert coaching and all. I used to watch the television and learnt from there. I used to play tennis ball cricket and tried to implement in it. I think that helped me a lot as I came to know how to evaluate things and work out,” said Bumrah talking exclusively to CricTracker.

He had figures of 4-0-32-3 on his IPL debut as he took the wickets of Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair later in the inning. “It was a very nice feeling,” says Bumrah remembering his IPL debut where he got better of Virat Kohli. “I played IPL before first-class cricket so it helped me quite a lot as there were a lot of experienced players and legends of the game in the Mumbai Indians team. That gave me a perfect platform to learn and develop as a player in all aspects.”

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December 28, 2015:

Jasprit Bumrah came out to bowl for Gujarat in the Vijay Hazare Trophy finals against Delhi at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and surprised everyone with his accuracy and the variations in that outing given his mediocre record till then in the IPL with 11 wickets in 17 games at an economy rate of over 9.

He recorded figures of 9.3-1-28-5 in the all-important final and played a key role in his team’s success ending the tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 21 wickets on his name which paved the way for him to crack into the Indian limited-overs squad and he never turned back.

However, Bumrah doesn’t think it was sudden success but a gradual process through which he kept learning and evolved himself and overcame various obstacles that challenged to be roadblocks.

“In 2013 I just came from Under-19 and in 2014 I had literally a good IPL. I did well in first-class cricket and even played well for India A. In 2014-15 I got injured and I missed about 4 and half months of cricket before playing in 2015 IPL. So it turned difficult for me to bring out my best in that IPL season even though I did okayish. That injury actually helped me quite a lot as I started to evaluate my things. I learnt quite a lot about my bowling and my game,” says the 23-year old.

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January 29, 2017:

England needed 8 runs in the last over at the VCA Stadium, Nagpur to bag the T20I series in the 2nd T20I itself against India. After the senior pacer, Ashish Nehra conceded 16 runs in the penultimate over, it was up to Bumrah to defend half of those in the final over against the likes of Joe Root and Jos Buttler.

First up was a sharp delivery on the stumps which trapped Root in front. The next two deliveries were slower ones and another slower off-cutter resulting in just 1 run. The equation came down to 7 off 3 balls, with the game slightly tilting towards India and Bumrah ensured he committed no mistake with another delivery angling down onto the stumps had Buttler return to the pavilion as the ball deflected from his bat and shattered his stumps. He delivered wide low full tosses as the final two deliveries and the Chris Jordan and Moeen Ali could only sneak in a bye as Bumrah helped India pull off a win from nowhere and they won the match by 5 runs.

“I am still learning. The start has been good but still a long way to go,” said Bumrah who is at No.2 in the ICC T20I rankings for the bowlers in less than 6 months.

Jasprit Bumrah’s strength off-late has been delivering yorkers at will in the death overs which according to him was a product of his tennis ball cricket and improved with the guidance of the likes of Lasith Malinga and Shane Bond, who are among those well-known for causing destruction with their yorkers.

“I used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket and there only I started to bowl yorkers. I learnt how to use it from them (Bond and Malinga), how to be consistent at bowling it and how to make it an advantage and all I have learnt over there (at MI).”

The guidance from the two experienced bowlers (Bond and Malinga) wasn’t only restricted to yorkers but also played a crucial role for him to improve his skills and accuracy.

“They have always been helpful. They are legends of the game and they had a lot of experience and knowledge to share with us. So I always have a chat with them on what I should do in a given situation and on how to improve and work more on my bowling.”

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While everything was going well for Bumrah, he suddenly started to bowl a lot of no-balls from around World T20 and ended up picking quite a few wickets on no-balls while most of those could turn the course of the game. However, Bumrah says that he has been working over it and is hopeful of reducing the frequency.

“It has suddenly started,” said Bumrah about his bunch of no-balls he is delivering in recent past. “It started as I was playing on and off. I am working on it. I have worked with Anil sir as well in the Indian team about it and hoping that I can reduce those as much as possible. It takes time. A problem can’t be solved in one session. We have to be patient and work hard on improving it.”

Even after playing 35 International games in his first year of career, Jasprit is yet to score a run with the bat. Though he came out to bat on 6 occasions, he lasted only 3 balls. He says that he is learning to do better with bat and is looking to contribute in every possible way to the team.

“I am still learning how to contribute to the team in all aspects. Even the 10-15 runs you contribute could help the team. So I am learning as much as possible.”