Birmingham: Defending 314 on a wicket that was being used for the second time in just a couple of days wasn’t going to be very difficult for the Indian bowlers, but the job still needed to be done and pacer Jasprit Bumrah did a brilliant job as he unleashed the yorker when the latter half of the Bangladesh batting looked to be making life tricky for Team India at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground Tuesday.
Addressing the media at the end of the day, Bumrah said his accuracy with the yorkers is all about working hard during training and doing the hard yards.
“A lot of preparation. So I always say that. So whenever I practice in the nets, I practice each and every situation, be it with the new ball, be it with the old ball, bowling at the death. So if I’ve ticked all of the boxes in the net, so in the match it’s all about execution and keeping a clear head. So I like to do that. So, all of that preparation helps me in the matches. If the work ethic is good, I think the execution feels much more easier in the game,” he smiled.
“Everything is preparation. I do it again and again and again in the nets. So the more you do it, you get decent at it. You can’t master it. You’re still trying to get better at it, yeah. It’s all about repetition. It’s like any other ball. If you’ve bowled so many length balls, just like that. So you have to do it again and again and try to replicate in the game.”
On Tuesday, Bumrah returned with figures of 4/55 from his 10 overs. All his scalps were clean bowled and he showed a great amount of accuracy and precision while bowling off-cutters and yorkers. His last two wickets of Rubel Hossain and Mustifizur Rahman proved how much clarity he had in his mind and was not unfazed when Mohammad Saifuddin was going all-out at the other end. He stuck to his strengths and delivered peach of deliveries to get the final two Bangladeshi wickets and seal the match for the Men in Blue.
Asked if defending the total on a slow wicket was easier than expected, he said: “We thought that the wicket will get slower as the inning progresses. We were just looking forward to that. So we thought that they’ll come hard with the new ball, which they were trying. So our main focus was to get the ball old as soon as possible so the spinner that we had and our slower balls would come into play. So that was the plan.”
Bumrah can be seen doing a lot of talking with skipper Virat Kohli and M.S. Dhoni when setting the field. Asked if it comes naturally, the pacer said he likes to back the plans he has at the back of his mind.
“When I’m bowling, I like to make my own decisions. In that, I am also involved in the game, and I have a clear plan. If I have the confidence to execute something, so I tell that to the captain or to the senior players that I think this would work and this could work according to my bowling. So I try to do that. I always do my preparation. I always think about what I would want at the end, and seeing the wicket, it changes a little bit as well,” he explained.
While Bumrah had a good day on the field, the same cannot be said of Mohammed Shami, but the Mumbai pacer said they hunt in a pack and one can’t be successful at all times.
“No, not at all because I know how difficult it is to bowl, especially at the end. So some days I could give runs. Some days some other bowler is giving runs. So you don’t try to blame anyone. You just try to help each other, take everyone together, try and communicate, make things calm. Don’t put extra pressure on the bowler because he’s trying hard. Obviously, it looks easy, but it is not. So we try and help each and every one, take everyone together, and give confidence,” he pointed.
India were denied a wicket during the Bangladesh innings as the review went against them. While skipper Kohli and Rohit Sharma were seen speaking to the umpires, Bumrah said it is part of the game.
“I was at fine leg, so I didn’t know what the case of the review was. But, yeah, we made a call, and it was decided. It’s okay. It was a judgment call. Sometimes the bowler feels that it was close, so he went with his gut feeling. Unfortunately on the day, it was not out,” he said.
Asked what makes him tick on slower wickets that challenge pacers like him, Mitchell Starc and Jofra Archer, he said: “I don’t know what works for everyone. For me, I just try to keep things simple. Analysing the wicket as soon as possible, reading the wickets. Sometimes you can run behind wickets, but you don’t want to. Every time I focus on the team goal. So what does the team want me to do right now? I try to focus on all of that, keeping things simple, not to run behind the success. I want to focus on the process. I try to do that. I stay in the present and focus on the process, and eventually I tick all the boxes, and everything will be well sorted.”