Many thought I would be last person to play for India: Bumrah

PTI, Apr 27, 2020, 9:49 AM IST

New Delhi: Jasprit Bumrah has risen rapidly to become one of the leading fast bowlers in the world but he says much thought that he would be the “last person to play for India”.

The Indian pacer made this revelation during a live session on Instagram with former India batsman Yuvraj Singh.

“Many people told me that I won’t play for long, there was an expectation that the last person to play for the country would be me,” said Bumrah when Yuvraj asked him about his unusual bowling action.

“They told me that I would just play the Ranji Trophy. But I kept on improving and I persisted with my action,” said the 26-year-old, who made his India debut in January 2016 following his exploits in the IPL.

Bumrah has gone to play 64 ODIs, 50 T20s, and 14 Tests. He made his Test debut in January 2018 and in a quick time, he became Virat Kohli’s go-to bowler even in the five-day format.

During the chat, Yuvraj reminded Bumrah that he had predicted that the pacer would go on to become the “number one bowler in the world”. And he did in 2017 when he reached the spot in the T20 rankings.