Jasprit Bumrah
R Sridhar revealed an incident that happened during the 2019 Test match between India and Australia in Sydney. The former India fielding coach recalled that Jasprit Bumrah picked up a five-wicket haul in the third Test at Melbourne. Team India then headed to SCG for the final Test match. The fast bowler noticed that the pitch was extremely dull and reached out to the-then bowling coach, Bharat Arun.
‘Sir,’ he started, slightly hesitantly, ‘The wicket is absolutely placid, and there is nothing in it for the faster bowlers’. One of Arun’s many strengths is his willingness to listen. He knew Bumrah wanted to tell him something but was unsure how to go about it,” Sridhar wrote in his book ‘Coaching Beyond’.
“‘I am very jaded, Sir, physically exhausted and mentally drained,’ he went on. ‘That’s where I am at, personally. There’s nothing at stake so far as the series is concerned. The track is docile. It’s more or less certain that this game will end in a draw?’ After this elaborate build-up, the coin finally dropped. ‘So what I will do, Sir is I’ll bowl a little slowly. I won’t go flat out. I’ll bowl well within myself and take out this Test,'” he added.
“‘The first option is what you are saying,’ Arun pointed, ‘You can take it easy and bowl well within yourself. You can bowl at 130-32 kmph, just finish playing this Test, then fly back home to recover and get ready for the World Cup. But in doing so, what may happen is you may end up giving the batter the confidence that he has played you well. You have bowled slowly; you have bowled within yourself; you have controlled your pace because you didn’t want to exert your body and mind. But the batter doesn’t know that.
So, if you bowl like that and if a player like Shaun Marsh or Marnus Labuschagne plays you out, he will actually get the confidence to do it again. He’s going to go one-up over you. So, tomorrow, in another match, even when you are bowling flat out, he will think, “I have played him well, I have that mental edge over him.” That will give him the confidence to play you better even if you’re bowling at your best. He will get accustomed to you,” added Sridhar.
Jasprit Bumrah is one of the single-biggest lethal weapons for the Indian cricket team. He has always pushed himself to the maximum in any condition and hurt his back on more than one occasion. Bumrah was ruled out of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy as he is on a long break due to an injury, which he had sustained last year. However, he is likely to feature in the ICC ODI World Cup which will take place later this year.
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