Jasprit Bumrah starred for India in their historic Test series win Down Under
India's pace sensation Jasprit Bumrah has carved a niche out for bowling perfect yorkers at any given point and with some perfection.
The ability to bowl them at will and hit the block hole on nine out of 10 occassions is what makes him so dangerous and on Wednesday, he finally revealed what helped him in becoming such a perfectionist.
"As a kid, I played a lot of tennis ball cricket and with the tennis ball, you can bowl only one kind of a delivery. There's length in question, no bouncers. There's only one ball that you have to practise. At that time, I played for fun. But later, when you start playing serious cricket, you realise the importance of that delivery.
"But not that because it naturally comes to me, I don't have to keep practising it. It still takes the same amount of hard work to get it right in a match situation. 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," Bumrah told Times Of India.
The 25-year-old, who was predominantly seen as a white-ball specialist after his exploits in the Indian Premier League with Mumbai Indians, made an instant impact after making his debut in Test cricket in South Africa last year and since then, he hasn't looked back.
Bumrah has gone strength to strength in red-ball cricket and has snapped 49 wickets from 10 matches at an average of 21.9 and was India's leading wicket-taker in their historic Test triumph Down Under earlier this year.
Since making his debut in Cape Town last year, Bumrah has come a long way, which included some vicious spells in England and Australia and when asked about his favourite, he said: "No favourites as such. Debut in Cape Town, a series win in Australia - what can be more wonderful than that? You know, now that I look back, small things that happened between spells, between innings, how wonderfully I got to learn with each passing game.
"The first innings in Cape Town for instance, I bowled, learnt what kind of line was required there, what the conditions demanded. And then coming back in the second innings keeping those aspects in mind, doing what was required - that is what I cherish."
One aspect of Bumrah that fascinates people is his habit of keeping it simple and concentrating on his bowling. Rarely do one get to see him swear at batsmen and rile them up. And, he feels that the ball should do the talking and not him.
"That aggression is there, of course. In fact, when I started playing the game, I used to be really assertive, trying to sledge batsmen, giving send-offs. But then, as I continued playing, I realised, all said it wasn't helping me bowl better. I would drift away from my set of plans, not be able to execute in the manner I thought and stuff like that.
"That's when I began to realise something here wasn't working. I had to channelise that aggression and let it show in my stride and delivery. Just mouthing off would make no sense. Any way, if the ball is doing the talking, it's enough. I don't need to talk," the 25-year-old concluded.
