India speedster Jasprit Bumrah shared his planning with the captain Rohit Sharma and all the various adjustments he made throughout his stunning four-wicket haul against Bangladesh in the first Test in Chennai on Friday as well. Playing after a break, in the Chennai heat, Bumrah bowled 11 overs in short, mostly three-overs-long spells and did exceptionally well.
“He (Rohit) understands the bowlers very well,” Bumrah said (via Times of India). “The weather was harsh, and everyone is coming back after a while – we’re playing a Test match after some time, so everyone needs to get into the groove. The chat was about short spells to make them effective. We have fast bowlers who want to bowl fast and spinners who can create an impact. When the ball is new, the seam is hard, and there is some lateral movement, so we wanted to capitalize on that. The plan wasn’t necessarily to bowl fuller because there was no consistent swing. Some balls swung, and some didn’t. So, we quickly adjusted angles, and I came around the wicket. But yes, with the new ball, there was some assistance, and we focused on that.”
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Other pacers, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, bowled in short spells and supported him well with two wickets each while Ravindra Jadeja also picked two scalps in just eight overs as well. Ravichandran Ashwin bowled the most overs, 13, after his century in the previous innings but couldn’t pick up a wicket as well.
“I had no other option because when I tried to bowl a length ball, the ball wasn’t doing anything, and the ball wasn’t reversing either. So, I had to try something because, as a bowler, you have to experiment when there’s not much happening. There was no grip on the wicket, so I used one of those tactics that I’ve used in domestic cricket as well. It worked today, and that experience helped me out. In Test cricket, I don’t usually bowl as many bouncers. Given the weather was harsh and I’m just getting back into Test cricket, I had to make adjustments. The ball had become wet because of sweat, and the seam was also wet. So, I had to use different options to get a wicket and make run-scoring difficult. These are things you learn as a lower-order batter too,” Jasprit Bumrah concluded.
