The yorker is probably the first delivery I had learned: Jasprit Bumrah

A pacer being adjudged as Player of the Match in a Test in India is a rare sight. Ishant Sharma was the last pacer to receive the honour,  against Bangladesh in 2019 at Eden Gardens. Jasprit Bumrah became the latest addition in that the list after he won the honour in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam as he picked nine wickets to help India win by 106 runs.

The 30-year-old dismantled England’s batting unit with a six-fer in the first innings while picking up three in the second innings. He was accurate with his line and length but it was his yorker to Ollie Pope that has been making rounds on social media platforms. He bowled an impeccable yorker to dismiss the cricketer, who looked to be in good touch.

Speaking about bowling perfect yorkers consistently, the Ahmedabad-born cricketer said that it is probably the first delivery he has learned. Bumrah added that he used to watch Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Zaheer Khan to perfect the art of bowling yorkers.

“As a youngster that (the yorker) is probably the first delivery I had learned because I had come from tennis ball cricket and I had seen the legends of the game, Waqar (Younis), Wasim (Akram) and even Zaheer Khan, I had seen them on the television, how do they bowl yorkers,” Bumrah told broadcasters after India's victory.

“As a kid, I used to feel that is the only way to take wickets. So that is the first delivery I learned. Yes, I kept it with me and I kept on using it to my advantage and now even in Test cricket when you get wickets off it, it's great,” he added. 

It is luxury to have Bumrah: Rohit Sharma

Skipper Rohit Sharma was very impressed with Bumrah’s performance against England in Visakhapatnam. He mentioned that it’s a luxury for him to have the pacer in the squad as he is a "champion player’" Rohit added that the batters did well in these testing conditions, while the bowlers stepped up at the right time.

“Yeah, it is (a luxury to have Bumrah). I mean, look, you know, he's a champion player for us. It's been a while, you know, that he's doing the job for the team. But yeah, I mean, when you win a game like that, you know, you've got to look at the overall performance as well. We were good with the bat and then obviously we know that winning a Test match in these kind of conditions is not going to be easy. We wanted our bowlers to step up and they did that,” Rohit said.