New Delhi: India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has said his short run-up is a product of his youth. Jasprit Bumrah was then playing backyard cricket. It gave him little space to build up a head of steam so he opted for a shorter run up. It has helped him now. The run-up approach allows him to bowl long spells in Tests without compromising on speed.
Tricky for batsman
The right-arm pacers quick consistently bowls above 140kph despite his relatively brief run-up. Batsmen find him particularly tricky because of his unorthodox sling-arm action.
“The run-up is because of playing in the backyard,” the 26-year-old said. He was speaking in the International Cricket Council’s ‘Inside Out interviews’ video series.
Candid opinion
“We didn’t have a lot of space when I used to play as a child. This was the longest run-up you could have, so maybe that could be a reason. I’ve tried a longer run-up and nothing changes – the speed is still the same. So why run so much?” the bowler stated.
Bumrah also said that the short run-up comes especially handy in Test matches. “… when I’m bowling my fourth spell, fifth spell, I’m relatively fresher than bowlers who play with me and have a longer run-up. This is my theory. This is not the best thing I should say, but I am bowling quicker than them in my fourth spell as well. So I think I should stick to it. If I have some physical difficulty and if it’s giving me some trouble, then I’ll find solutions. But if it’s not broken, why fix it,” added Bumrah.
Balance between bat and ball
A ban is looming on the use of saliva to shine the ball when cricket restarts after the coronavirus shutdown. Bumrah said there should be an alternative to help maintain the game’s bat-ball balance.
“The grounds are getting shorter and shorter, the wickets are becoming flatter and flatter,” Bumrah pointed out. “So we need some alternative for the bowlers to maintain the ball so that it can do something – maybe reverse in the end or conventional swing,” asserted the pace bowler.
Agencies
