India’s Jasprit Bumrah (ANI Photo) Two evenings before the Super-8 match against South Africa in Ahmedabad a fortnight ago, Jasprit Bumrah decided to dive into the empty wicket with two boots placed on either side of the batting. He lasted hurling yorkers for a good 45 minutes. It was an exercise he started in Dharamshala during the T20I series against South Africa last December.Mohammed Siraj arrived at the practice ground to bat the adjacent nets, walked up to Bumrah and said, “Aapko kya zarurat hain yorker practice karne ka? Aap toh buk raat ko neend se uthke bhi yorker maar sakte ho!” Bumrah smiled, nailed another perfect yorker that edged out one of the boots and said, “Bahut zarurat hain bhai (it is very important).
Childhood friend Suryakumar Yadav is backing him to win the World Cup for India
At 32, after many injuries and many winning matches across formats in over a decade, Bumrah still puts himself through the drills that a 16-year-old boy would do at the academic level. It just speaks to his constant hunger to be the best and stay on top.Bumrah has bowled himself to stumps and boots in the nets during this World Cup campaign. One of his yorkers even landed on Ishan Kishan’s left finger before the match against Namibia in Delhi last month.
Match by match
On Thursday night, in a thrilling semi-final against England in Mumbai, every yorker Bumrah bowled was on point and helped stifle England’s chase.Finding the next gear in tight situations, on the biggest stage, is nothing new for Bumrah. His spell of 2/20 in the last T20 World Cup final against South Africa was T20 bowling excellence. He showed in this edition that he can improve on that.A spell of 1/33 on Thursday in a match that saw a match total of 499 runs, that too with plenty of dew at the Wankhede Stadium, was a performance from a bowler in supreme control of his craft. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav opting to bowl Bumrah in the 18th over when Jacob Bethell was on a rampage proved that he is still the No.1 option when the Indian team is under pressure.
Bumrah in T20Is
Bumrah usually smiles shyly after perfecting his deliveries, be it dipping slower balls, nimble bouncers or crushing yorkers. He has also mastered the art of mentally distancing himself from “outside” chatter and remains detached from any possible criticism. He looked cool in the way he went about his work at this World Cup.India entered the tournament boasting Varun Chakravarthy’s enigmatic spin as a trump card, but it is Bumrah who has covered him and seized the opportunity. It came as no surprise when England captain Harry Brook said: “Bumrah is a very good bowler, probably the best of all time at the moment. He has been a very good bowler for a long time.”Bumrah knows he is the most complete pacer in the world. He also knows that to keep it up, he has to train like a rookie every day.
