India pace spearhead in all three formats of the game, Jasprit Bumrah narrated an interesting conversation he had on his ODI debut with then India captain MS Dhoni. Bumrah, who is known for his accurate yorkers in death overs, revealed he was asked not to bowl his stock delivery in the death overs against Australia in that ODI in 2016.
Bumrah who made his debut against Australia in an ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground, said Dhoni had never seen him bowl before that match and that was probably the reason why the legendary captain advised him against trying yorkers on debut.
“I made my debut (Sydney, 2016) under him and he gave me a lot of confidence. Not many people know that Mahi bhai had never seen me bowl, at any level. In my debut game, I was going to bowl in the death overs and I asked him ‘can I bowl yorkers?’ and he was like ‘no, don’t bowl yorkers’. He thought since it was a difficult delivery, I wouldn’t be able to pull it off,” Bumrah was quoted as saying by Times of India.
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Bumrah, however, went on to his execute yorkers perfectly and gave away only 3 runs in 49th over of Australia’s innings. The right-armer shone on debut with figures of 2 for 40 in his full quota when none of the Indian seamers had an economy rate under six.
Bumrah revealed Dhoni had come to him after the game to state that India probably would have won the series had he been played early.
“I told him ‘in death overs, I don’t know what else to do’. So, anyway, I went ahead and did my thing and then he came to me and was like “I didn’t know this at all. You should’ve come earlier, we would’ve won the whole series”. Here was me, making a nervous debut and the captain telling me “you could’ve won us this series”. He gave me a lot of freedom,” Bumrah added.
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Batting first, Australia had made 330 for seven riding on David Warner’s 122 but India managed to chase it down thanks to Rohit Sharma (99), Shikhar Dhawan (78) and Manish Pandey(102*), who was adjudged Player of the Match for his maiden ODI ton.
Asked about Dhoni’s retirement, Bumrah said it was his personal decision.
“Well, it was his decision, and everybody respects it.”
Bumrah and Dhoni will be up against each other when Mumbai Indians take on Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of IPL 2020 on September 19 in Abu Dhabi.