India’s fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been bowling tremendously in international cricket. He made his debut in 2016 in Australia and hasn’t looked back since then. He took no time in consolidating his place in all three formats for India.
Mumbai Indians introduced him to the limelight when he played for them in 2013. Bumrah is a find of MI’s scouting team, who saw a potential star in him.
Also Read: Jasprit Bumrah and Joe Root aiming for Huge milestones
Bumrah opened up about how he was approached by Mumbai Indians during his young days. He mentioned he got a call and they asked ‘are you interested?’.
“I was just selected for the T20 competition, and that was just my second game and it was against Mumbai. So, John Wright had come to watch Akshar. I didn’t know I would get picked. I didn’t pick a lot of wickets, I just picked one but I bowled really well, I didn’t give a lot of runs.
“So, he came to watch one more game. He enquired and PP (Parthiv Patel) told me that he was asking about me. I thought he was clearly joking and making fun of me. After a few days, I got a call from the Mumbai Indians and they asked me, ‘Are you interested?’ I said, ‘Of course, I am interested, that’s not even a question. Are you guys interested?’” said Bumrah in a chat with Dinesh Karthik on Sky Sports.
He further mentioned his partnership with Lasith Malinga in the Mumbai Indians camp. Bumrah revealed Malinga felt that he could do well for India.
Also Read: Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Joe Root with a brilliant delivery
“I had an interesting partnership with Malinga. He usually doesn’t talk a lot but he came up to me on his own and said, ‘I saw your bowling in the last game and I feel you can really do well.’ I connected with him on that level and he told me that you have got a lot of things to offer,” said Bumrah.
The 27-year-old told his partnership with Malinga has been good and they are still in touch.
“Since then the partnership has been good. He still talks to me, even during those phases when I was really eager to play international cricket. He taught me a lot of things. He said that hard times will come and before playing international cricket, you need to see everything,” concluded Bumrah.
