The premier Indian pacer, Jasprit Bumrah reckons that Rohit Sharma supported him a lot during the early stages of his career at Mumbai Indians. Rohit helped Bumrah to gain confidence and evolve as a bowler. Bumrah said he started playing for MI in the Indian Premier League regularly under Rohit’s captaincy after getting picked by MI as early as 2013.
During a recent chat with R Ashwin on his Youtube channel, describing his relationship with Rohit Sharma and MI, Jasprit Bumrah said, “When I came into the side, Ricky Ponting was the captain but I was not playing regularly. But under Rohit, I did. He had a lot of confidence in me, he instilled confidence. He saw me bowling in the nets and the skills that I have. He always backed me, told me to believe in myself.”
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He further elaborated, “Whenever in the initial stages as well, he had a lot of trust in me. He would give me the important overs. Now we have reached a stage he doesn’t even tell me things. He will tell ‘you set the field on your own, if you have any changes, tell me, I will do that. He has had that trust because I have made things work. Somedays, things might not go well, but he always has kept the atmosphere in our team very simple and calm.”
Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah also went on to explain that the reason behind his success isn’t just IPL, but his performances in domestic cricket have helped him a lot. He also highlighted the role Shane Bond played in him to grow his career, especially during his early days at the Mumbai Indians.
Explaining the same, Jasprit Bumrah said, “So I thought I will stick to it and I thought if I chance, I might lose the things I have. When I went there, Shane Bond and the Mumbai Indians’ set-up taught me how to plan and analyze for different batters. When I started, I had 2-3 deliveries. I did not know what field to have when.”
Elaborating it further, he said, ”I used to say ‘I am going to bowl this delivery, you set the field accordingly because I did not know where the ball would be good because my accuracy was still in development. But at MI, I started understanding these things, started planning on my own. I started studying my own game. “
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Jasprit Bumrah explained, “For instance, I can’t bowl a slower ball because of the dew. I developed the slower yorker. Trying different things and gaining the confidence to execute it came at MI. Shane Bond pushed me out of my comfort zone and try new things. He put me under pressure, saying the things I have not done.”
Jasrit Bumrah called himself a ” Mumbai Indians loyalist”, and shared his thought on leading the five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions.
The Premier pacer said, “I don’t like to chase things because I don’t want to. Whatever role is asked of me I would do it with the best ability that I can. Basically, you try to help all the people in whatever capacity you can. Even in Mumbai Indians, you have got a lot of senior players but now I am one of the senior players as well so you help the captain, you help everyone, you play the leadership role even when you are not asked to.
Jasprit Bumrah concluded, “That’s how I look at it. I never want to, you know, just for personal satisfaction have that okay I want to be in this I have to be the captain. Yes, if given an opportunity at any scenario, it would be an honour and I would never ever shy away from that, but it is something that I don’t go looking for, that is how I look at the leadership aspect of the game.”
