Jasprit Bumrah credits Rohit Sharma for ‘instilling confidence’, success in T20s

Jaspirt Bumrah, India’s premier pacer across formats, said that skipper Rohit Sharma showed trust in him and backed his ability to bowl crucial overs. The two play together for the Mumbai Indians since 2013. 

Speaking after India’s dominant win in the second T20I vs Sri Lanka on Saturday, Bumrah said that Rohit Sharma, who captains the Men in Blue, has played a crucial role in his development as one of the world’s premier fast bowlers.

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“When I came into the side Ricky (Ponting) was the captain and I was not playing regularly. I started playing a lot under Rohit, he had a lot of confidence in me. He instilled a lot of confidence,” Bumrah said during a conversation with India team-mate Ravichandran Ashwin on the senior off-spinner’s ‘DRS With Ash’ episode on his YouTube channel.

India defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets. They lead the series 2-0. Bowling first, Bumrah bowled a fiery opening spell. He finished the game with 1/24 in his four-overs quota. 

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The 28-year-old pacer recalled Rohit Sharma spotting him in Mumbai Indians’ nets. 

“He (Rohit) saw me bowling at nets, he saw what kind of skills that I have so he always backed me and always told me to believe in myself and in the initial stages as well he had a lot of trust in me, so he will give me the important overs. That tells me that okay I can do the job, sometimes you are still trying to convince that okay maybe it is the right call that I am doing the tough job, but they have put you into the tough zone so then you will find a way how to come out of it. The relation has been same,” he said.

Bumrah and Rohit were among the four players Mumbai Indians, five-time IPL champions, retained in 2022. 

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The bowler further added that Rohit “has a lot of trust in me till date and so now we have reached a point where he doesn’t even tell me what do you want to do. He says ‘you set the field on your own and if there are any changes you tell me and I will do that’. That amount of trust has happened. He has had that trust because he has followed whatever I have said, asked for a field and that has worked so the relationship has really developed.”