Since making his debut his 2016, Jasprit Bumrah has been India’s go-to bowler in all formats. After his brilliant performances in the IPL, the national selectors drafted Bumrah for the last ODI against Australia. He instantly made the headlines with his unique bowling action and his ability to bowl yorkers at will in the death overs.
Bumrah recently recalled an interesting incident during his ODI debut under MS Dhoni. The speedster stated that Dhoni before had not even seen him bowl and wasn’t aware of his strengths and weakness.
When Bumrah asked Dhoni whether he should bowl yorkers in the last few overs, the former Indian skipper advised otherwise. Considering it was his debut match, Dhoni wasn’t sure about whether Bumrah would be able to execute the difficult delivery.
Jasprit Bumrah recalls ODI debut under MS Dhoni
“I made my debut at 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,” Bumrah was quoted as saying by Times of India.
Moreover, when Bumrah himself explained Dhoni that he only knows how to bowl yorkers, the skipper gave him the green signal. Bumrah immediately impressed the former India skipper with his ability to keep the scoring rate in check during the death overs.
He further added that in the end, Dhoni told him that India would have won the series he was in the squad in the earlier matches.
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“I told him ‘in death overs, I don’t know what else to do’. 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 of freedom,” Bumrah further added.
Meanwhile, that was the only match that India won in the entire ODI series as they lost by 4-1. Bumrah was the standout bowler for India in the match as he ended with match figures of 2 for 40. Since then the speedster has never looked back and been a regular feature in India’s squad in all format.
Dhoni and Bumrah will return to action again and face off against each other in the opening encounter of the Indian Premier League. Defending champions Mumbai Indians will face the Chennai Super Kings on 19 September at Abu Dhabi in IPL 2020.
