I Didn't Get Any Formal Coaching So I Used To Copy Everybody's Actions- Jasprit Bumrah Reveals How He Ended Up With His Bowling Action
Indian frontline pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah revealed how he ended up acquiring the unique bowling action that has outfoxed many a batsman. When Bumrah jumped onto the scene in the IPL, many people mocked his action but he developed it nonetheless and has become one of India’s best pacers.
While in a conversation with Dinesh Karthik, Bumrah explained that he tried to copy other bowlers’ actions and it slowly morphed into the one he has at the moment. Although it looks painful, the action hasn’t caused him any harm so he continues to stick with it.
“I learned cricket from watching television. I didn’t get any formal coaching so I used to copy everybody’s actions. This did not come naturally but later on, I don’t know what jumbled up and I ended up with this one. But it didn’t give me a lot of pain in the body so I thought, ‘Okay if it’s not troubling me, I’ll use it to my advantage.’”
“I was lucky that wherever I went, the coaches didn’t try to tamper with it and only advised me to work on my body and everything else will be taken care of. I tried to keep things simple that if there’s some physical discomfort, and I am not able to execute what I want to, then only I need to change things,” the 27-year-old revealed.
Jasprit Bumrah explains why he walks before running in to bowl
Bumrah’s typical lead-up to the crease is generally employed by spinners. Shane Warne for example, walked forward a bit before going into the full-blown action. Similarly, Bumrah discovered that running in all the way wasted his energy so he decided to switch up to a walk-and-run type of bowling style.
“When I started, I used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket, or in India, we play a lot of it with the rubber ball. So, when I used to play, the boundary was only of this size (very short). So I couldn’t go too far back (for the run-up). Earlier, I didn’t walk so much but rather run all the way.”
“Later on I realized I was wasting a lot of energy and the speed was still the same! Nobody told me to do this but I came up with my own thing like ‘Maybe walk a little and run a little and preserve energy and it didn’t trouble me a lot and helped me in the longer spells,” Bumrah added.
With the same action, the pacer has scalped 266 wickets across different formats at the international level, while also grabbing 115 wickets in 99 IPL matches. He is currently playing for India in the fourth Test against England at The Oval.
