When he started out, Jasprit Bumrah was the mix-it-up short-format paceman with good speed, excellent yorkers, and clever variations of pace. But 62 wickets – at an average of 19.24 in 12 Tests – later, he is as potent a force in Test cricket. Virat Kohli’s “complete bowler” also showed off a new weapon in the Caribbean recently, the outswinger, which we might not have seen much of before, but Bumrah says he always had but didn’t use too much.
“I have always had the outswingers, I have not used it much,” Bumrah said at an event in Mumbai on Friday. “But playing in England gave me a lot of confidence with the Dukes ball swinging for a long period of time. I got more and more confident as I played more and more Test cricket.”
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White-ball cricket, even the longer version of 50-overs-a-side, is a different beast in many ways for the fast bowler – not much movement in the air or off the pitch, conditions largely manufactured for big-hitting, and much else. “In white ball cricket, the ball doesn’t swing for a long period so you have to assess what kind of delivery works every time,” he said. “I was working on it {the outswinger] for a long period. I used it in England as well when we were playing against county teams. You can’t use everything in one match. You just try to assess the conditions on the given day and see what could work.”
Listening to Bumrah, one gets the impression that he values his Test career a great deal, maybe even more than what he has done in one-dayers and T20s. And that’s reflected when he picks his favourite cricketing moment.
“Playing in my first [Test] series, when I got the fifth wicket, that was the moment – ‘now I’ve got a Test fifer, nobody can take it away from me”
“Getting my first Test fifer, which I got in Johannesburg. Playing in my first [Test] series, when I got the fifth wicket, that was the moment – ‘now I’ve got a Test fifer, nobody can take it away from me’.
“As a domestic player, I have played a lot of Ranji Trophy cricket, so you always wanted to make a mark in Test cricket. I always had the belief that if I have done well in first-class cricket, I can replicate that in Tests as well. I have played only 12 matches, but finally after I made my debut after playing for two years of international cricket in South Africa, it was a good experience, a dream come true. I was really happy, just being there and playing in a white jersey was a great feeling. And then slowly, slowly starting to contribute towards the team’s success gave me a lot of satisfaction.
“I just didn’t want to be a cricketer who played one-day and T20,” he said. “So the journey has been good. It’s just started, hopefully a long way to go. I’m learning from the experience that I’ve gained by playing in South Africa, England, Australia and the West Indies. India will be a different challenge, which I’m looking forward to.”
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One of the things Bumrah stresses on, again and again, is self-belief.
“For me, even if things don’t go well, the only opinion that matters, in my opinion, is your [own] opinion. It doesn’t matter what others think of you. That’s the philosophy I follow,” he said. “Whatever people think, whatever everybody’s opinion is, that is not important. If they give you love, that’s good. If they don’t, that’s good. Ultimately it’s what’s inside your head, you’re there, you should have that belief. If you have the belief, everything will fall in place.”
Interestingly, all his Test appearances so far have been overseas, away from the subcontinent: four in Australia, three each in South Africa and England, and two in the Caribbean. Not just that, he has picked up five-fors in each of those countries, becoming the quickest (in terms of number of Tests) to record five-wicket hauls in four different countries. Now, he will play a Test in India for the first time – the games are scheduled to be played in Visakhapatnam, Pune and Ranchi.
Bumrah isn’t worried about his effectiveness, or lack of it, in Indian conditions. “I have played all my life in Ranji Trophy cricket in India. These are not alien conditions for me,” he said, adding that the key was in preparing well. “For me, a lot of preparation goes in before any match or tournament. I assess the conditions, we will discuss with the team management and the senior players, who have played a lot of cricket over here, as to what works, what doesn’t work, so will take everything into consideration and see how it goes.
“All these things I listen to, and filter them, and figure out what I can do and cannot. I try to asses all this and make my plans.”
It’s that mindset, that self-belief, that also helps Bumrah “stay calm” when things don’t go his way on the field. “If you get angry and show unnecessary emotion, it doesn’t really help. It’s a waste of energy. During that time, I like to stay calm, I try to smile, then I tell myself, ‘see, you are playing international cricket, you are playing at the highest level, which you always wanted to do as a child, so why are you getting frustrated’,” he said.
“So few people in the world get such an opportunity. At that moment I feel grateful, I feel happy that I am playing at this level, small frustrations here and there will happen, but just be happy with the opportunity.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo