The current bowling spearheads of Mumbai Indians, Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell McClenaghan, are looking in sublime form. Their consistent bowling performance and knack of picking up hard wickets makes MI a threatening squad to be reckoned with. The recent trifecta would not have been possible without the efforts from Bumrah and McClenaghan. Mumbaiindians.com spoke to both these MI heroes about their form and the Purple cap chase, which is currently held by Mitch.

Talking about their win last night, against the Rising Pune Supergiants, and the strategy against Steve Smith, Bumrah says, “As we plan for every batsman, we had a fixed plan for him (Steve Smith) as well. We were hoping that the plan would work, it was a good day for us so the plan worked. Sticking to our strengths that’s the main thing I had in my mind.”

The duo admits that spontaneity isn’t an attribute they had use in the death overs. Everything is planned to the T. Every batsman is analyzed and weaknesses are assessed. Bumrah elaborates, “I think the main thing in death bowling is to have a clear plan, the clearer plan you have the better it is. As I said we have meetings, bowler’s meetings, so we plan things out. We don’t just go and perform in the spur of the moment, we plan a lot before coming into the match. That is very important and is helping us right now.” McClenaghan added, “As Bum touched on, we have specific plans at the end, we identify where guys struggle to hit the ball the most and if we bowl to the plan and get hit so be it, as long as we have done what we have tried to do as a team and as a unit and having gone like pole hunting and trying to take wickets for individuals we know at the end of the day we’ll do the job for the team”.

Both the bowlers applaud one another for their efforts so far. Bumrah the ever adaptive bowler and learner talks about McCleneghan, “He’s always aggressive so I’ll look to learn that and he always gives his 100% so probably I look to that as well but I look to learn a lot from him since he’s been playing international cricket. A lot of players are there over here and we are all are looking to learn from each other. That’s the basic thing.” McClenaghan talks about Bumrah’s skillset. “Bum’s probably got the best Yorker going around in world cricket at the moment, but what we’ve seen this IPL is that Bum’s also got one of the best slower balls and a fantastic bouncer. So using the whole repertoire, using the Yorker at the right time, he’s really starting to come on and we’ve seen the last couple of games how effective he’s been with changing up the pace and then firing in the quick yorker so it’s been fantastic.”

The duo is all set to take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad this Sunday after a week long break. Fans will be looking forward to seeing the two, ball in hand and running their magic, once again, on the field.