India’s Yorker King Jasprit Bumrah spilled the beans about his cricketing journey, his unique bowling action and more in a recent interview with Dinesh Karthik. Currently in England, batting it out in the fourth Test at The Oval, the ace Indian pacer took out some time from his schedule to tell us all about himself.

Bumrah’s delivery in the interview was impeccable, and below are some excerpts from the same.

“I was given time till my graduation to try cricket”

“It’s always been there, since my fifth-sixth standard. But my mother, being from the service background, didn’t really understand the sport and she didn’t think that this was the best option to go forward with. Since there are a lot of variables attached to it and a lot of people play cricket, she wasn’t really sure you could make a career out of this sport.”

“I don’t know where I got the belief that I could do well in this sport. So she gave time till I finished my graduation to try whatever I wanted in cricket. If not, I was going to go to Canada and settle down there. First year into my college I played in the IPL as a 19-year-old and here I am.”

“I want to keep things simple in my bowling”

“At the end of the day, I don’t believe any action is foolproof and safe, and every fast bowler has some pain here and there. As a child, I used to watch and learn cricket from the TV. So, I used to copy everybody’s actions. I did not have a natural action. But later on, I don’t know how I landed on this action, but it didn’t give me a lot of pain in my body.”

“So I thought that if it isn’t troubling me, I will use it to my advantage. I was lucky that wherever I went, the coaches didn’t really hamper it. They only advised me to work on my body and that everything else will be taken care of.

When I started, I used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket. In India, we play a lot with the rubber ball. So when I would play, the boundary was of a small size, so I could only go as far as this. Earlier, I never used to walk so much and bowl, but I would run all the way through. Later, I realised that I’m wasting too much energy and my speed is still the same.”

“So I came up with my own thing - to walk a little and run a little - to preserve energy for longer spells. It didn’t really trouble me and worked out in the longer spells. While playing Ranji trophy, you bowl a lot of overs. Later on, I realised I was fresher than the other bowlers. So clearly that helped, and I thought why not keep it and take it with me to international cricket?”

“I want to keep things simple. If there’s physical discomfort that I’m facing with my action and I’m not able to execute what I want to, then I need to change things. But if there’s no trouble, I don’t want to change anything. So you’ve to find your own way and technique sometimes and realise what works the best for you.”

“John Wright had come to watch Axar, didn’t know I’d get picked”

“It was my last year in U-19 cricket. I had played for U-25s, and I was in the Ranji setup, but I wasn’t picked, just selected for the T20 competition. That was just my second game, I was playing for Gujarat against Mumbai. So John Wright had come to watch Axar, because he was signed, and a lot of players from Mumbai were already there in the MI squad.”

“I didn’t know I’d get picked. We all came to know that John Wright had come to watch the game, but I was there and tried to do my thing. I just picked up one wicket that day, but I bowled really well, didn’t give a lot of runs. So he came for another game to watch, and enquired.”

“Parthiv Patel was also there as our captain, and he told me that John Wright was asking for me. I thought he was clearly joking and making fun of me. After a few days, I got a call from Mumbai Indians asking if I was interested. Of course I was, this wasn’t even a question! He said they were going to sign me and they sent me the contract.”

“As a 19-YO, I came into the room where all my heroes were there”

“On the first day, I was not confident at all. As a 19-year-old kid, you come into a room where all your heroes are there. Sachin Tendulkar walked into the room, Ricky Ponting was next, and then came in Anil Kumble followed by Mitchell Johnson and Jonty Rhodes, and here I was playing U-19 cricket. It felt a little surreal and I was trying to get a hold on myself.”

 “I had to introduce myself and the person next to me as a part of the team bonding exercise. I was able to talk, but I was trying really hard to hold myself together and get through with the session and try to interact with them later on.”

“I had an interesting partnership with Malinga”

“I had an interesting partnership with Malinga. He doesn’t generally talk a lot, but he came up to me by himself and told me that he saw my bowling in the first game. He said he felt I could do really well. Since I also had a different action, he connected with me. He told me a lot of stories about how he was told that he’d lose his action in six months. I got seven or eight months! He connected with me over that and told me that I’d got a lot of things to offer and since then the partnership has been good.”

“He still talks to me. Even during the phases where I was trying to do well in international cricket, he taught me a lot of things. He used to say hard times will come and told me that it’s good to see these before playing international cricket. If you straight away see difficulties in international cricket, then you won’t cope up.”

“My 2014 surgery was a wake-up call”

“Until 2014, I had not seen any injuries. I was doing very, very well. So training and diets were not a big part of my life. I was young, didn’t need a lot of recovery, I assumed my skill would take me further. But in 2014, I was warming up with the team playing football, when I twisted my knee, and I had to get an ACL reconstruction. It was like a wake-up call. Suddenly I felt like my career was over. I had heard that when surgeries happen, you’re never the same.”

“Then, I became more serious towards the game. I took training really seriously. I became stronger, started training and eating well. I started taking care of my body. Injuries, I feel, are a part and parcel of this, but if I take care of everything in my control and prepare myself in the best possible way, I can relax.”

“I really believe that bowlers take the game forward”

“We play almost 10 months a year. If you don’t have a proper lifestyle or sleep well, it’s a full year job, it’s not like you turn up and just perform. Batsmen can get away with a bunch of things. Even with shoulder or knee pain, they can just stand in the slips while on the field. But we’ve to do the hard job and we change the game.”

“I really believe that bowlers take the game forward. It’s a tough job. Even if there’s a small niggle, you can’t play. I really feel that if you do a tough job and then make an impact, it’s more satisfying and you’ll be remembered for a long time.”

Jasprit Bumrah is currently playing the fourth Test between India and England at the Oval, London.