PALLEKELE: A fast bowler who is on the fringe of taking on the mantle from the great one-day fast bowler Lasith Malinga is India’s 23-year-old Jasprit Bumrah who bowled his team to a series clinching victory in the third ODI against Sri Lanka at the Pallekele International Stadium on Sunday with the first five-for in his brief international career.
Bumrah with his ability to bowl slow balls and fast yorkers is reminiscent of Malinga at the height of his powers. Now with the Lankan bowler nearing the end of what is an outstanding career Bumrah who has learnt a lot from playing alongside him for Mumbai Indians in the IPL is ready to step in and take on the mantle.
“Malinga has been there with Mumbai Indians when I was a 19 year old in 2013. I was a kid who didn’t play first class cricket so talking to him and learning from him is always valuable,” said man of the match award winner Bumrah at the post-match press conference.
“Malinga has been there for 3-4 years so I have learnt a lot from him. Over the years it has helped me quite a lot and going forward in international cricket you talk to a lot of senior bowlers, that also is helpful. I think every bit of knowledge that you get is very important,” he said.
Being his first visit to Sri Lanka Bumrah said that it was challenging to play in different conditions.
“As a bowler you have to constantly learn new things and that’s been my main aim all the time. This is my first visit to Sri Lanka and I have never played here so it is always a challenge to play in different conditions,” said Bumrah.
“I look to do that and ask questions to seniors what experience they have gained for so many years. I look to do that and this basic change that has come in me is that I always learn nowadays because as a youngster you don’t know what place you have to go and learn. The change that has come from experience is helping me as well.”
Bowling on different surfaces Bumrah has produced devastating results in the series so that he is easily the leading wicket-taker from both sides with 11 wickets at a cost of 8.36 and an economy rate of 3.49 runs per over.
“The last wicket was a bit on the slower side so at that time I thought I have to use variations and slower balls because the ball was not coming onto the bat,” explained Bumrah. “This wicket when we started the ball was seaming a bit so you try to use that to your advantage, bowl a good line and length, try to get good results from the wicket, so we tried to do that and it was a good day it worked in our favour.”
Bumrah ended with figures of five for 27 off 10 overs to contain Sri Lanka to a total of 217-9.
He was of the view that with the advance technology available to all countries bowler’s needed to have one or tricks up their sleeve to stay ahead and be successful.
“After a point nowadays with technology coming into cricket people start to analyse and if you only have one or two tricks people will start to line you up,” said Bumrah. “The things you do early on people don’t know but once they start studying videos and know what to plan they know what to expect. So you have to keep on evolving and according to situations you have to adapt.
“If you are just a one trick bowler, that won’t work for a long period of time. If you want to be successful you have to evolve according to the wickets and learn from all the experienced players and take the experience forward.”
Bumrah was grateful to the roles played by two former Indian cricketers Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun for his success.
“When I came into the Indian team, Ravi sir was the team director so… the basic thing that he told me to do is to treat each match as a Ranji Trophy game I would play for Gujarat because if you play for India, then you take on extra pressure, and that won’t help you to express yourself,” said Bumrah.
“What he told me in the first match is still with me. Bharat Arun sir has been there, he has seen me since my under-19 days, before I played in the IPL or anything at the NCA. It’s always good to talk to him about my bowling. He knows a lot about my bowling. It’s always good to work with such an experienced coach who has seen so much of your bowling.”
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