Jasprit Bumrah recalled MS Dhoni's praise after the bowler made his international debut in 2016.
Jasprit Bumrah has been one of the key bowlers for the Indian team across all the three formats of the game. He made his international debut in 2016 and has since appeared for India in 14 Tests, 64 ODIs and 50 T20Is. Bumrah is widely regarded as one of the fiercest fast bowlers in international cricket.
He made his international debut against Australia in an ODI series in 2016. He played the final ODI of the five-match series, after India had already conceded a series loss.
In a conversation with the Times of India, Bumrah recalled the ending overs of the match and the compliment he received from then-captain of the side, MS Dhoni, on his bowling during the death overs.
Bumrah also revealed that Dhoni had not seen him bowl at any level before his international debut.
"At a personal level, I made my debut (Sydney, 2016) under him and he gave me a lot of confidence," said Bumrah.
"Not many people know that Mahi bhai had never seen me bowl, at any level. In my debut game, I was going to bowl in the death overs and I asked him 'can I bowl yorkers?' and he was like 'no, don't bowl yorkers'.
"He thought since it was a difficult delivery, I wouldn't be able to pull it off. I told him 'in death overs, I don't know what else to do'. So, anyway, I went ahead and did my thing and then he came to me and was like "I didn't know this at all. You should've come earlier, we would've won the whole series".
He further said that the words from the former Indian captain gave him a "lot of confidence."
"Here was me, making a nervous debut and the captain telling me "you could've won us this series". He gave me a lot of freedom," said Bumrah.
Bumrah took two wickets in his debut match, conceding 40 runs in his ten overs. India eventually won the match by six wickets -- and it was the only game India won in the five-match series.
MS Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15. However, he will continue to play in the Indian Premier League and will return to the field on September 19, when he and Bumrah will be in opposite teams as Chennai Super Kings take on the Mumbai Indians.
