Former India coach revealed how he and captain Virat Kohli planned to unleash Jasprit Bumrah straightaway in South Africa. India had an amazing run as a test team under Ravi Shastri as the team conquered many challenges around the world and the biggest reason behind that is the pace attack they formed under the guidance of bowling coach Bharat Arun.
Ravi Shastri recalled the time of the South Africa tour in 2018 when they wanted to surprise proteas with something new. So Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli decided to go with Jasprit Bumrah. By the time Bumrah was a regular member of India’s limited-overs set-up as he had already played 31 ODIs and 32 T20Is then but the general perception around the cricket fraternity was that he might not be as effective in the longest form with his awkward action.
But the team management was ready to take that gamble. But they carefully planned his debut as they didn’t want to show their cards ahead of the series so he wasn’t picked in the home series and decided to unleash straightaway in the rainbow nation.
“He knew. I made Bharat Arun call him up and let him know that be ready. You might just get a call up. I spoke to Virat, spoke to the selectors. I said not in India… don’t even bring him into the 15 in India. Unleash him straight in South Africa. And coming to Cape Town,” Shastri said on ‘The Ravi Shastri’ Show on Star Sports.
Bumrah was given the Test cap at Cape Town and only in the third match he produced a match-winning fifer at Johannesburg and the rest, as they say, is history. Now he has a fifer at Melbourne, Nottingham, Kingston & North Sound as the Gujarat pacer played an integral part in many overseas wins for India.
Before the South Africa series, Bumrah had 101 Test wickets and only 4 of them were at home as the team management tried to manage his workload to preserve him for important overseas series only. He played a key role in two back-to-back series wins in Australia with 32 wickets in 7 matches with an average of 21.25.