Jasprit Bumrah’s key to success: Music, yoga and not talking about cricket in off time

When one talks about India’s success in overseas tours in 2018, Jasprit Bumrah features prominently on the list. His five-wicket haul in Johannesburg helped India achieve a consolation win against South Africa while yet another haul against England in Trent Bridge gave India their only win in a series which they lost 1-4. In the series against Australia, Bumrah’s magical spell of 6/33 in Melbourne and 21 wickets in four Tests helped India win the series for the first time Down Under. The right-arm pacer’s brilliance in the longest format of the game has made him the gun bowler in Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team as the side aims to win the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

In an exclusive chat to Times of India, Bumrah revealed the secret behind his success. “Music. In my case, that helps me a lot. And yoga. Once I'm off cricket, nobody gets to know where I am, what I'm doing. Not talking about cricket is as important as talking about cricket. You need to switch off in order to switch on,” Bumrah stated.

Bumrah is known as a wonderful death bowler and his ability to nail the yorker on a regular basis has earned him praise from a lot of former and current fast bowlers. The Gujarat pacer revealed the influence of tennis ball cricket in honing his yorker-bowling skills. “I played a lot of tennis ball cricket and with the tennis ball, you can bowl only one kind of a delivery. There's length in question, no bouncers. There's only one ball that you have to practice,” Bumrah said.

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The 25-year-old also hailed the influence of Rohit Sharma, who was his captain in the Mumbai Indians franchise and also in the Indian cricket team. Bumrah said Rohit always backed him. “Rohit's never been different with me. He used to back me with a lot of space then and he does it now. He'll come, ask me what I see or believe in, set the field accordingly and then keeps backing me up all the time,” Bumrah said.

The young pacer was rested for the ODIs against Australia and New Zealand and he will be hoping to make a mark against Australia in the upcoming two-match Twenty20 International series and the five-match ODI series which begins on February 24.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Jasprit Bumrah's first Test was AB de Villiers in the Cape Town Test.
• Bumrah's five-wicket hauls were in Johannesburg, Trent Bridge and Melbourne.
• Bumrah's 21 wickets in Australia gave India a 2-1 win Down Under.