Jasprit Bumrah- The boy who still hates to be hit

Jasprit Bumrah

It was business as usual on Friday at the modest Royal Cricket Academy just a few kilometres away from the Narendra Modi Stadium where the academy's most famous son, Jasprit Bumrah, will be playing the biggest match of his life in less than 48 hours.

Veteran coach Kishore Trivedi, 77, is teaching a bunch of 50-odd kids the finer nuances of the game very patiently, but authoritatively nonetheless. On the wall of the academy are two big posters, featuring Bumrah and Trivedi's son's Siddharth, a prominent Gujarat pacer, who also went on to play for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL before recently taking up a coaching role with the Manipur team.

Bumrah's childhood coach Kishore Trivedi at the Royal Cricket Academy in A'bad yesterday where a young Bumrah honed his skills as a teenager. Pic/Ashwin Ferro; (right} Jasprit Bumrah is ecstatic after claiming the wicket of NZ's Glenn Phillips at Wankhede on Wednesday. Pic/Getty Images

The entire cricket crazy Indian population will be feeling the nervous as two-time world champions India prepare to face five-time winners Australia in the World Cup final on Sunday, but Trivedi is calm and confident. "I have no doubt that Jasprit will do well in the final. He has been playing well throughout the tournament and his final performance will be the cherry on the cake," Trivedi told mid-day with a bright smile despite the tiring day he has just spent at the academy - a routine he has been following for over three decades.

Impressive comeback

Bumrah, who was injured for almost a year before this World Cup, has picked an impressive 18 wickets from 10 matches at a tournament-leading economy rate of 3.98. Bumrah was always a miserly bowler, revealed Trivedi. "He came to me at the age of 15 and his unique action stood out. But even back then, he hated to be hit. If a batsman tried to do so, he would bowl the next one a lot quicker. The academy boys would always complain to me, saying they don't want to face him as he's too fast.

They felt that he threw the ball and that his action was illegal. I had to convince them that it's not illegal but just odd," recalled Trivedi, going on to add that Bumrah's action had nothing to do his injury: "Jasprit has been bowling like that since he was a kid, so if he didn't break down then, how can the action suddenly hurt him? The injury is due to his workload. He plays all three formats regularly and modern cricket over a period of time can be extremely unforgiving."

Teenage years are known to be full of mischief, but Bumrah was the studious kind. "His mother was the vice-principal of a school, so that's where he got his discipline from. But he was always one of the hardest workers at practice and particularly enjoyed bowling yorkers. I would place an object close to the stumps at yorker-length and make him hit it consistently. I would make him train for close to an hour extra daily on this yorker aspect and he would sincerely comply. Today, his yorkers are unplayable," said Trivedi, a former Ranji Trophy off-spinner for Saurashtra.

Interestingly, Bumrah's disciplinarian mum almost curtailed her son's career. "One day Jasprit's mother came to me complaining that his marks are dropping because he's playing cricket the whole day. ‘He is all I have [Bumrah's father passed away when he was very young] and I want him to achieve something big in life,' she said.

Jasprit used to get 80-90 per cent grades and wanted this to continue, but it was impossible because he was spending three to four hours on the ground daily for his cricket. So, I made her understand that she should not focus on his marks as long as he is passing the year. I told her to let him get 40-50 per cent marks but give his 100 per cent to cricket. I insisted we do this for two years and if he doesn't progress as a cricketer, then he can focus fully on his academics. Thankfully, in two years, he began playing district and state-level tournaments and progressed to the U-19 events and finally John Wright [former India coach] spotted him for Mumbai Indians. Jasprit has not looked back since," explained Trivedi.

‘Happy as long as he's succeeding'

Bumrah sure hasn't looked back, so much so that he hasn't even spoken to Trivedi for over two years now. The coach may not openly admit it, but he does miss exchanging notes with his super star student. "The international cricket calendar is a busy one, so I understand Jasprit has a lot of commitments. As a coach, I'm
happy as long as he's succeeding," concluded Trivedi.

18
No. of wickets claimed by Jasprit Bumrah in 10 matches of the ongoing World Cup