Now that Jasprit Bumrah has been named the vice captain of the Indian T20I team on a temporary basis with clear hints that the selectors and the BCCI are looking at him as a potential leadership option in future, his former captain Parthiv Patel has recalled some of the early days of Bumrah’s domestic career.
Jasprit Bumrah came into limelight while playing for Mumbai Indians in the IPL, but he was also a consistent performer for Gujarat in domestic cricket. Pathiv Patel recalled one of the incidents from 2016 Ranji trophy where Gujarat only had three bowlers available in the semi final game, as a couple of other bowlers had sustained injuries mid way through the game.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, Parthiv said that Bumrah was a young bowler at that stage, but he understood the captain’s problem and assured him that he would bowl as many overs from one end without a break as the team needed him to bowl and the other two available bowlers could be rotated from the other end.
Jasprit Bumrah got a 6-wicket haul in that Ranji trophy game
For a hardcore fast bowler like Bumrah who has to put in a lot of effort to bowl every single over because of the pace that he generates, it’s not easy to bowl a spell of more than 5 or 6 overs, because it poses a serious chance of injury or pulling a muscle.
But, because of the fact that his team needed him to step up to the plate in a desperate situation in an important Ranji trophy game, Bumrah bowled uninterrupted from one end. Parthiv recalled that Bumrah actually grabbed a 6-wicket haul for Gujarat and won them the game.
It remains to be seen if Bumrah continues to be India’s vice captain when KL Rahul returns because Rahul is believed to be the next in line for India’s leadership after Rohit Sharma, but there are enough signs that BCCI sees Bumrah as someone who can also lead in future, despite him being a fast bowler.
