Bumrah’s unique bowling action and his ability to bowl yorkers at will have been his trademark thus far in his career.2018 turned out to be the year when the world woke up to Jasprit Bumrah. He burst on the scene in T20 cricket but was running the risk of being boxed in as a limited overs bowler. That was until he was included in the Indian Test team for the South Africa tour and since then he has cemented his position in the squad. This came to a crescendo in India’s series win in Australia when he was being hailed as the best pacer in the world across formats by commentators and experts.
Bumrah’s unique bowling action and his ability to bowl yorkers at will have been his trademark thus far in his career. The 25-year-old said that his expertise of the delivery comes from the fact that he used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket in his childhood.
“With the tennis ball, you can bowl only one kind of a delivery. There’s the length in question, no bouncers. There’s only one ball that you have to practise,” Bumrah said in an interview with Times of India.
“At that time, I played for fun. But later, when you start playing serious cricket, you realise the importance of that delivery,” he said.
However, Bumrah also said that he still has to practice the yorker to get it right. “It still takes the same amount of hard work to get it right in a match situation,” he said. “I do spend enough hours now trying to get all the little things correct. The line, the length, the bounce. The game now actively involves playing three formats that are very different from each other. So, there’s constant work to be done to stay in tune with each of them.”
His first wicket in Test cricket was of South African great AB de Villiers but Bumrah said that the moment that stands out for him was a spell during a match against England in Trent Bridge. “I had missed the first two Tests and was making a comeback and there was so much talk already in the England camp. They’d seen videos, there was some analysis and there were experts there who said, “This guy has only one type of delivery.” Some claimed I only had an away delivery for left-handers,” he said.
“I said fine, if this is what they’re thinking, then I have a bit of an advantage here. Because they don’t know that I have an out-swinger as well. I remember I was bowling to Keaton Jennings and I started with two away deliveries. I teased him by moving slightly over the wicket before bringing one back in slightly. It turned out to be just enough. Small joys are the best ones.”
