Early days in Ahmedabad - A look at Jasprit Bumrah's growth

Todayrsquos third India v England Test is not only a special game for Ishant Sharma who figures in his 100th Test here His fast bowling partner Jasprit Bumrah too The local boy will step on the Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium turf today and soak up the homely atmosphere for his first home TestHe last played a firstclass game here in 2013In two Ranji Trophy matches on his home ground Bumrah has claimed seven wickets v Haryana 1114 and Orissa against whom he claimed 380 and 326Rested for the second Test against England at Chennai Bumrah who claimed four wickets in the first Test will share the pink ball for the daynight Test today with senior pro IshantVijay Patel and Narendra PancholiExpress paceItrsquos the express pace that put Bumrah in the spotlight when he started playing on Gujaratrsquos local circuitldquoThere was a lot of curiosity over this boy When he started playing school and district cricket the word spread that there is a bowler who bowls very fast and has an awkward actionrdquo Gujaratrsquos state coach Vijay Patel recalled during a chat with midday on TuesdayBumrah was immediately asked to report at the Gujarat Cricket Associationrsquos agegroup nets ldquoHe impressed everyone with his pace and was fasttracked into the statersquos U19 teamrdquo said PatelIn 2011 Bumrah first played for Gujarat in the U19 Cooch Behar TrophyAhmedabadbased journalist Narendra Pancholi who was Bumrahrsquos first school coach at HB Kapadia here recalled how the lanky pacer would trouble batsmen with pace while playing interschool cricket in 2006 ldquoHe always had pace and his awkward action troubled cricketers of his age I would just tell him to bowl on the stumps and he would get a wicket for surerdquo said PancholiConcerned momAfter a year at HB Kapadia High School Pancholi requested Bumrahrsquos mother Daljit to get him admitted to Nirman High School where his cricketing prospects would be better ldquoHB Kapadia School had just started cricket He had better growth prospects elsewhere His mother who was a teacher in both schools would be worried that her son only plays cricket and does not focus on academics I told her that Bumrah will at least play Ranji Trophy cricket and the income he will generate will be quite sufficient I advised his mother to take him to another school and thatrsquos how he joined Nirmanrdquo said Pancholi Though Bumrahrsquos pace was the talk of the town his slinging action was a concern ldquoWe never tried to change his action Yes there were minor corrections but the coaches at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore said that we must not tinker with his natural action The biggest concern for us was that his action would make him injury proneldquoHowever he has worked on his fitness tremendouslyrdquo said Patel a Level III coach Bumrah was later spotted by Mumbai Indians talent scout the former India coach John Wright during the 2013 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 league stage at the Motera B ground The rest as they say is history83No of wickets claimed by Jasprit Bumrah in 18 Tests