Mumbai Indians gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has a lot of arrows in his quiver but most importantly the guile bowler he is, he knows which one he has to use and when. The pitch, the match situation, and the practice sessions play a key role in his success.
The ace pacer was once again right on the money when other bowlers were getting smashed all over the over. In a match where almost 200 runs were scored, despite MI playing only 15.3 overs, Bumrah had figures of 5-21 in his quota of four overs. Yeah, that’s right, on a batting paradise at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai against RCB on Thursday.
After MI won the toss and decided to bowl first, Bumrah was able to get the big fish – Virat Kohli, who looked at sea in his nine-ball stay. Bumrah accounted for Faf du Plessis, Saurav Chauhan, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Mahipal Lomror as MI registered a convincing seven-wicket win.
Bumrah has picked 10 wickets in five matches of IPL 2024 at an average of 11.90 and an impressive economy rate of 5.95. Thus, he is currently the Purple Cap holder in the tournament.
Bumrah attributed his success to working hard in the training session and analyzing what needs to be done against a particular batter on a particular pitch.
Bumrah said after he was awarded Player of the Match, “Very happy with the contribution. In this format, it’s anyway very harsh on the bowlers so you have to have all kinds of skills. This is what I train for. Come this situation, I should have different options. I should not be a one-trick pony, and can’t just rely on yorker because there will be days where my execution is off so I can rely on other deliveries.”
He added, “Everyone is doing research and data, so people start to line you up. So I wanted to have different skills. Bowling is tough because you will have to take a beating, you will have to have bad days to learn from it. What I’ve done in the past, whenever I’ve had bad days, I’ve watched videos the next day to see what didn’t work, why it didn’t work, what is the way I’ve been playing.”
Mumbai Indians will next take on defending champions Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
