New Delhi:
Jasprit Bumrah has had a magnificent start to his Test career. The Gujarat pacer is the only Asian bowler to take a five-wicket haul in South Africa, England, Australia and West Indies on his first tour. Bumrah is the quickest Indian bowler to get to 50 wickets and his display of bowling in the West Indies has gladdened fast bowling purists who see this as a revival in the art of fast bowling. In the second Test at Antigua, Bumrah became the third Indian after Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan to take a hat-trick in Tests and he ended with a haul of 6/27, his best in Tests. Bumrah has revealed that he relies on the advice of seniors like Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami and stated that the current bowling unit is very happy.
"Ishant has played a lot more cricket than all of us, (Mohammed) Shami has played a lot, I'm the new guy, so I try and ask questions. I ask them, they've played here before, so 'what works in different conditions?' 'If the wicket is not doing anything what should we do?' What different plans are to be there. You have to assess the wicket, what are the conditions, what works here. Here the wicket has a lot more bounce. In such bouncy wickets you can become greedy and bowl short but you shouldn't do that. You should look to bowl in good areas and create pressure and try and bowl full. That was the plan going into the first innings," Bumrah said.
In the first innings, Virat Kohli was awestruck by Bumrah's bowling and it was his instinct to take the review which helped Bumrah achieve history. "The captain's confidence gives you a lot of self-belief. When you bowl, you can express yourself, you can try whatever you want to do. That gives you a lot of confidence, not only me but each and every bowler is being backed by him so much. As a bowling unit we are very happy and then we have the freedom to do what we want," Bumrah said.
Also Read | India vs West Indies 1st Test: Virat Kohli surpasses Sourav Ganguly, equals MS Dhoni with Antigua win
The right-arm pacer said bowling with the Dukes Ball in England had already given him practice to utilise the Duke Ball brilliantly on the Caribbean pitches which assisted pace bowling.
Also Read | Jasprit Bumrah becomes second-fastest Indian to 100 ODI wickets in World Cup clash vs Sri Lanka
"I played a lot of cricket in England, we played a lot of Test matches, we bowled with the duke ball. There is a lot of movement with the duke ball, you get a lot of confidence in outswing, inswing, whatever you're trying. So, that experience helped me out," Bumrah said.
West Indies are currently 45/2 in their pursuit of 468 and Virat Kohli's Indian cricket team are all set to take a 2-0 lead in the Test series and end their tour on the ultimate high.
