Bumrah Magic at Wankhede

Jaspirt Bumrah will play a critical role in Mumbai turning things around in this edition of the Indian T20 League. Having lost their opening three fixtures on the bounce, the five time champions have bounced back strongly winning their last two. Even though both have been high scoring fixtures, Bumrah has emerged to be the difference. No other bowler has conceded less than six runs an over across teams in both these matches. 

He registered his second five-fer in Ind T20 League on Thursday (April 11) against a helpless BLR side. As things stand, Mumbai is positioned seventh on the points table. Bumrah has been the chief architect of the last two wins and he will be eager to continue his good form in the tournament ahead.     

“So, when the first over was bowled, I saw Nabi bhai's ball was gripping a little bit, so I realised that it might not be a straight, flat deck in the beginning," Bumrah said. "When the dew sets in, I guess the length ball will become better, so I kept that in mind, I wanted to stick to my strengths, I wanted to bowl a good, hard length. That worked today.

"I do my research, I see where the batter is strong. Sometimes the wicket is sticky, you don't need to always bowl a yorker. Sometimes you can use your bouncer, you can use your slower ball, so you don't need to use all tricks in one day. You have to understand where the game is going, what kind of a wicket (it is), there is no ego in this format. Even if you bowl 145 but if the wicket demands you to bowl slower balls, you have to do that. Can't be a one-trick pony where you just aim at the stumps and go hunting."

Given, he took five wickets in spite of the fact that his four overs are spread out all over the innings in different phases, the veteran pacer stated he is now adjusted in that role. I've been doing this for 11 years here, so I have now been used to being ready whenever the situation demands," he emphasised. "You use your experience, you keep an eye on where the game is heading, because what happened in the end, dew set in, so the wicket got a little better and the ball started skidding on. So all of these things, you try to get involved in the game and you try to help others as well."

Presently, the top wicket- taker in the tournament, Bumrah leads the pack by some margin considering his economy rate is under six in a season where others have gone for plenty. Bumrah has credited that to his skillset and the countless efforts he has put in to prepare himself for various challenges. 

"This format is very harsh on the bowler," he noted. "So you have to have all kinds of skills. This is what I train for. In this situation, I should have different options. I should not be a one-trick pony. I should just not rely on my yorker because there will be days where my execution is off so I can rely on another delivery. So this is what I had worked on early on in my career as well. Everybody's doing their research, data and all of that comes in. So people start to line you up. So I wanted to have different skills so I was very happy that I could use it.

"Bowling is tough because you will have to take a beating, you will have to have bad days to learn from it. What I have done in the past is that whenever I've had a bad day, whatever has not worked, the next day with a calm mind, I've seen the videos. 'What does not work, why did it not work? What is the way I've been playing?' So all of these things, you have to be with the curve because nowadays you just cannot come on the day and say 'okay, I'll do this, maybe this will work.' So you're hoping for success. For me, preparation is always the key. When you prepare hard, you put yourself under pressure in the nets, you bowl to batters who can hit big sixes. You bowl to them, you see how you react to stress, you see how you react to pressure. Then you start finding answers so that is very, very important for me to keep pushing myself in training. Then on game day you have answers that, okay, when I had similar pressure in training, I had answers."