Jasprit Bumrah is the leading player in the Indian cricket team. He performed well for the Indian team that won the T20 World Cup at the end of last month. He showed his menacing bowling throughout the series and won the man of the series award with 15 wickets.
Bumrah’s story perfectly captures how Indian cricket democratized itself and conquered the world. He doesn’t come from a traditionally strong cricketing background, he doesn’t have a regular bowling action, he doesn’t have a long run-up and he doesn’t have any godfathers in the Indian cricket set-up.
Born into a Punjabi-Sikh family, Bumrah grew up in a middle-class environment in Ahmedabad and taught himself the ins and outs of the game by watching television. Fortunately, unlike in the distant past, when such talent from non-traditional centers could fall through the cracks in the system, his talent was discovered and allowed to grow. Self-taught, self-made, India has never had a great fast bowler. Bumrah was adjudged the player of the tournament in the T20 World Cup which India won last month.
Meanwhile, today Thursday at 7 pm, Bumrah will attend the Express Ata event in his hometown Ahmedabad as a special guest. He will interact with Anand Goenka, Group Executive Director, The Indian Express and Sandeep Dwivedi, National Sports Editor, The Indian Express. The rise, challenges and cricket journey of Indian yorker king Jasprit Bumrah will be discussed in this interview.
Bumrah’s dominance underscores the respect and admiration he has received from fast bowling greats around the world, from West Indies’ Andy Roberts to Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, who recently joked that the only way to stop Bumrah inside was to steal his shoes.
He has created an atmosphere where India will have to depend heavily on Bumrah if they are to achieve their goal of winning the Test Championship and the ODI World Cup in the future.
Express Atta
‘Express Ata’ is a discussion program organized by Indian Express Group. Earlier in the event, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, cricket icons Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Olympic gold medalist javelin thrower. Notably, player Neeraj Chopra and motivational strategist Kaur Gopal Das were the guests