Confidence doesn’t dent after one match, says Jasprit Bumrah

The fans and experts were hopeful that the Indian cricket team, after a glorious home season, would continue their winning momentum abroad as well. However, their dreams came crashing down in the first Test of the series as South Africa secured a fairly comfortable 72-run win in Cape Town. Trailing 1-0 in the three-match Test series, the Centurion Test will be a crucial match for the visitors if they are to stay alive in the Test. Bumrah claimed that the team still have positive vibes in the dressing room and they will definitely bounce back in the next clash which will start on January 13.

“Confidence doesn’t dent after one match. If it happens, then you don’t deserve to play. Learn from the mistake you made and go forward. There is not a single cricketer who has not made a mistake. You keep learning and you keep improving all the time. We are trying to rectify our mistakes and move forward,” Bumrah told The Indian Express.

The reason behind emergence in hope of India’s winning chances in South Africa was team’s recent form and new pace attack which included the Gujarat player. In the Cape Town Test, Indian team management decided to hand Test cap to Bumrah as a reward for his consistency in the limited overs format. But the 24-year-old, who hadn’t played a first-class game for almost a year, revealed that he wasn’t feeling any pressure in his first five-day game.

“It’s not like in my life I was playing a first-class game for the first time, I have played a lot of four-day games. There was a discussion that I would play the match, so I was talking to our bowling coach what kind of things I should do, what kind of wickets are over here or what should I expect,” he said.

The visitor’s batting department failed to put any sort of meaningful challenge in front of Proteas’ spearhead department excluding Hardik Pandya who was the highest scorer for the team. But it was Indian bowlers who managed to keep their team in the game. Bumrah, himself, took little time to adjust with the conditions claiming four South African scalps in the two innings combined.  

“It’s always good to face new challenges. As you play more and more, you get to know a lot about the wickets, you get a fair idea about where to bowl and what kind of lines to bowl. You know that sometimes the wicket over here is bouncy but as soon as you play the first match, you see it’s a flat wicket and then you have to adapt accordingly. So this is my basic plan always—never go by perceptions that this will happen and this won’t happen.” he said.

It has been always difficult for the Indian players to perform on the bouncy track. Virat Kohli’s decision of canceling the practice games may be hampered the team results in some manner. Bumrah admitted that he was guilty of bowling a little too full instead of hitting the deck hard.

“In the first innings, we thought we bowled a little fuller than the normal because in India the wickets are different where we have to pitch fuller to get the swing and to get the batsmen on the front foot. Over here there is a bounce, there is a little bit of difference. We analyzed that and tried to adopt that in the second innings.”

Bumrah played 31 ODIs and 32 T20I for India in which he claimed 56 and 40 wickets respectively. Interestingly, he targeted big shots as his maiden wickets in all the formats as in 2016 he got Steve Smith’s wicket in the 50 over format, in the same year, he got David Warner’s scalp as his first wicket in T20I. Bumrah targeted Kohli as his first IPL wicket in 2013 and when he came in the ground in whites AB de Villiers became his first prey.

“It is not a dream debut. Whatever I learnt from first match I was happy as a bowler. As a bowler, you look to get his first wicket as early as possible and I got AB. It was happy, and from there on we took lot more wickets. Not to get too excited and not to get too down after every match is my motto and take the confidence into the next match,” he added.

Bumrah credited the Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun for his improvement as a player.

“He has seen me since the time I walked in as a U19 boy at the NCA where he was the coach. He knows me and gives me good advice. He knows my bowling and as a player, it is good to have a coach who knows my strengths and weakness,” he observed.

It is known that Centurion strip will provide more bounce in comparison to Newlands pitch which will be a new challenge for the Indian players.

“We are focusing on our preparation for as wicket go, I have not played over here and as far as net wicket goes, there is lot of bounce,” he said.