‘Great to contribute towards team's success’ – Jasprit Bumrah after scalping maiden five-for in home Tests

Jasprit Bumrah has breathed fire with the ball in the ongoing second Test between India and Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The right-arm pacer made the pink cherry talk during Sri Lanka’s first innings and scalped his maiden five-wicket haul in home Tests. Prior to this, he recorded seven Test five-fors overseas. While Bumrah was elated with his performance, he termed his performance a contribution towards team success.

Notably, Bumrah hasn’t played a lot of Test matches at home to manage workload. Also, the majority of the tracks in India are conducive for spin bowling. However, the selectors picked him for the ongoing series and the speedster delivered. Besides his five-for in Sri Lanka’s first innings, the pacer took the first wicket of the visiting team’s second innings as well. As a result, Sri Lanka ended Day 2 at 28/1 in a chase of 447 runs.

When you play all three formats, you have to look after your body: Jasprit Bumrah

“It feels good… When you play all three formats, you have to look after your body and you sometimes miss out on the home Tests. This was an opportunity and to be able to contribute towards the team’s success is always a great feeling,” said Bumrah during a virtual press conference.

Meanwhile, a lot has been said about the Bengaluru track as puffs of dust were blowing right from the very first hour of the match. As a result, batters endured a hard time besides likes of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, who played counter-attacking knocks. On being asked about the pitch conditions, Bumrah said the players should be ready to embrace challenges.

“You always play in different conditions, not every wicket will be the same. If there is some help for the bowlers, it gives you (the batsman) a lot of confidence when you score runs on such a wicket,” said the pacer further. “You will not get flat wickets everywhere you play, so whenever it’s a challenge, you are always looking forward to that challenge. Nobody is complaining about the wicket,” he added.