Rested for the limited overs leg of West Indies tour after a long, gruelling season of cricket that included the World Cup in UK, India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah on Friday (August 2) received the 2019 Youth Icon award at the ‘Forbes India 30 Under 30’ event in Mumbai.
At the occasion, in a chat with CricketNext, he dwelled over an astonishing rise in international cricket and the quest to get better each day, besides responding to the love and affection that has come his way.
"It always feels good when people appreciate you. It feels good to be loved by the people of this country," Bumrah told host Gaurav Kalra. "I don’t know about being a national asset but it has been a long season with the IPL and World Cup and it was good to get a two-week break before I join the squad for the Test series."
With 49 wickets in 10 Tests at an average of 21.89 and 103 scalps in 58 ODIs at an average of 21.88, the 25-year-old is already one of the best in the business.
"The best thing is that as a team we are happy as a bunch. The start has been a good one for me but the journey is still long," he, however, said before talking about his unique bowling action that first caught everyone's attention towards Bumrah and is now being emulated by cricket lovers of all age groups.
"As a kid, I used to watch a lot of cricket on TV and tried to emulate bowling actions of all the top bowlers in the world. So everyday when I went out to play it was a new bowling action."
"There is no better feeling when kids are emulating your bowling action because I used to do that when I was growing up."
There's an Instagram video in which a 70-year-old lady was emulating Bumrah's action and he says that brought a big smile on his face.
"The video actually made my day. We were coming back to India after a tough World Cup campaign. Watching this brought a smile on my face."
Famous for his pin-point yorkers, Bumrah said it is Sri Lanka legend and Mumbai Indians teammate Lasith Malinga who first helped him gain command over the delivery.
"I started playing cricket with the tennis ball and the most useful delivery then to pick up wickets was the yorkers, so I stuck to that."
"When I came to IPL and played in the same team with Malinga, he showed me the importance of bowling accurate yorkers. I think I am decent with the delivery but I want to get better," he said.
Bumrah then talked about the injury to Vijay Shankar off his bowling and the fun that goes inside the dressing room, especially him pulling the leg of skipper Virat Kohli.
"It was an unfortunate incident but no one tells the batsman not to hit the ball hard. I have spoken to Shankar about it and told him he needed to improved certain aspects of his technique," he said.
"It is all in good humour (fun with Virat). When we bowlers bat in the nets, the batsmen make fun of us and we do the same when the batsmen try to come and bowl during the match."
A limited overs genius, Bumrah also has Test five-fers in overseas wins across Johannesburg, Trent Bridge and Melbourne. He hasn't yet played a home Test and the man wishes to wear those prestigious whites for the country many times in his career.
"Like I said, growing up I used to watch a lot of cricket on TV and I used to watch a lot of Tests. My aim is to play as many Tests as possible because that’s the pinnacle for me. In my book, I rate Test cricket very highly," he concluded.
