‘He gives you freedom to do whatever you want’: Bumrah credits Kohli’s influence for recent heroics

India’s ‘death’ bowler specialist Jasprit Bumrah has done enough to gain confidence of his skipper Virat Kohli, who the 22-year-old says has given him freedom to express himself, reported PTI.

“It feels good that the captain has so much of confidence in you and that he gives you freedom to do whatever you want. When this happens, a youngster like me can express himself and show what he is capable of,” Bumrah said.

With ability to bowl yorkers at will during slog overs, Bumrah has emerged as Kohli’s go-to man in the death overs. A tournament economy rate of 4.77 for someone who bowls bulk of his overs in back end of the innings is commendable.

But, Bumrah is against being labelled as slog overs specialist. “You know, we don’t focus on these things. You can’t just be labelled as death bowler or a swing bowler [referring to Bhuvneshwar Kumar], whenever you are given the ball, you have to contribute.

You bowl according to situations – whether at the death or at the beginning. The aim is to stick to a plan and execute it,” he said.

Touring England for the first time, the Gujarat and Mumbai Indians pacer has been picking former captain MS Dhoni and Kohli’s brains. “I take inputs from our senior bowlers who have played a lot in these conditions. Our coach [Anil Kumble], Mahi bhai, Virat gives us tips on what are the conditions, discuss plans. It’s of great help,” Bumrah said.

No swing on offer

Bumrah seconded his bowling partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar opinion that there is no swing available for bowlers on tracks which are hard and good for batting.

“I don’t know as this is my first visit to England. I have not played here earlier but whatever I heard the ball swings here quite a lot. But so far, there has not been any swing available. Bowlers have to adapt all the time. We focus on other options – to contain the batters.”

“The conditions were favouring the batsmen and wickets are also stable. You can’t bowl full and try to swing the ball. You have to contain the batsman and it worked in our favour. So even if I don’t get wickets, somebody else will get wickets. That was the basic plan, to bowl good, hard lengths,” he said. The Gujarat pacer was all praise for the fielding unit.

Unlike India’s first two games in the tournament – against Pakistan and Sri Lanka – the defending champions showed good intensity on the field during their eight-wicket wicket against South Africa. Bumrah stated that his side had put in the hard yards before their do-or-die encounter at the Oval: “We have worked hard on our fielding and we always want to improve. First match was a little low on fielding aspect but we are working hard. It was a good day that we got few run outs as well.”