When Jasprit Bumrah Made MS Dhoni Change His Perceptions About The Seamer

Indian fast bowling sensation Jasprit Bumrah made his international debut under the leadership of MS Dhoni, who recently retired from international cricket. MS Dhoni has been responsible for turning around the fortunes of several Indian cricketers and grooming them to while his time was coming at a close. Jasprit Bumrah, whose hallmark is regularly bowling yorkers to great effect in the death overs, recalled an incident when the former Indian captain instructed against bowling it.

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It was in the fifth ODI of India’s limited-overs tour of Australia that Jasprit Bumrah made his first international appearance. India found themselves four down in the series, mainly owing to their lacklustre death bowling. The likes of David Warner, Aaron Finch, Mitchell Marsh, George Bailey and John Hastings milked the Indian bowlers for plenty of runs in the slog overs and MS Dhoni had little answers to their onslaught.

Jasprit Bumrah began with respecting MS Dhoni’s decision to retire from international cricket and credited the 39-year old for giving him confidence. Bumrah revealed that during his debut when he asked the captain if he could bowl yorkers, Dhoni advised him against it since it was a challenging delivery and the keeper-batsman never saw him bowl before at any level.

“Well, it was his decision, and everybody respects it. At a personal level, I made my debut (Sydney, 2016) under him and he gave me a lot of confidence. Not many people know that Mahi bhai had never seen me bowl, at any level. In my debut game, I was going to bowl in the death overs and I asked him ‘can I bowl yorkers?’ and he was like ‘no, don’t bowl yorkers’. He thought since it was a difficult delivery, I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I told him ‘in death overs, I don’t know what else to do,” Bumrah told Times of India.

“MS Dhoni gave me a lot of freedom” : Jasprit Bumrah

The 26-year old further said that he managed to bowl yorkers and Dhoni got stunned, admitting they could have won the series had Bumrah come earlier. Jasprit Bumrah revealed that it was a nervous debut for him and the captain told him he could have won India the series. Moving forward, the lanky seamer would be seen in the upcoming edition of IPL for Mumbai Indians while MS Dhoni will lead the Chennai Super Kings.

“So, anyway, I went ahead and did my thing and then he came to me and was like “I didn’t know this at all. You should’ve come earlier, we would’ve won the whole series”. Here was me, making a nervous debut and the captain telling me “you could’ve won us this series”. He gave me a lot freedom,” he added.

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