India spearhead Jasprit Bumrah revealed that he never got no formal coaching growing up and he learnt everything from watching cricket on the television.
“I started my cricket quite late. I was not a tearaway quick because at six, seven, I didn’t play cricket,” he told Fox Cricket.
“I started cricket with the season ball probably at 16, 17. So I watched the television and picked up cricket. I’d got no formal coaching ever.
“So I learned everything through the television and, you know, somehow picked up cues and kept on finding my own solutions. So that’s worked with me till date that, you know, I come into a setup. I rely on my own instincts and gut. So yeah, that’s how I picked up.”
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Bumrah opened up about his short bowling run-up.
“When I used to play cricket as a youngster, there used to be benches over there. So I couldn’t go any further than that. So I couldn’t go through that. So that was the limit that we had,” he said.
“So we used to keep it as a boundary. So I used to run in from there. So when I came into serious cricket, I tried to run more. Initially I did run a lot more, but it used to have no difference to my pace. It used to stay the same.
IND vs AUS: Jasprit Bumrah picked up his 50th Test wicket of the year on Friday in Adelaide on his birthday. (AP)
“So at that time I thought, okay, might as well conserve some energy for bowl faster for a long period of time. So I had this and it did, it made no difference to my bowling. So I thought I’ll keep it with me.”
Bumrah explained why no one coaches in India ever tried to change his bowling action.
“I don’t think a lot of people believed in me because they thought that this bowling action will not last for long. He’ll play for six months, seven months.
“So not really a lot of people worked on me or, you know, gave me inputs that, you know, I think this is useful or you should stop doing that because. I don’t think they saw a lot of merit.
“I think that worked out in my favour because. I was self-reliant then and I had to have a lot of self-belief and find out solutions on my own. So yes, nobody tried to change me, but nobody gave any extra solutions.
“So that worked out for the best in the greater interest, but then that helped me develop, you know, relying on yourself and having the self-belief. So I think that worked out brilliantly for me.”
