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Jasprit Bumrah was spotted by former Mumbai Indians coach John Wright who was so impressed by the youngster that he instantly signed him for the IPL franchise.
Jasprit Bumrah is counted among the world’s leading fast bowlers. (AFP Photo)
Former India head coach John Wright has revealed how he unearthed Jasprit Bumrah while scouting for the Mumbai Indians. Bumrah, arguably the world’s best all-format fast bowler, has been their go-to bowler who has more often than not delivered with timely breakthroughs.
Wright recalls how he discovered Bumrah during his tenure as Mumbai Indians head coach from 2013 to 2015.
“I was in Ahmedabad, scouting the domestic T20 competition and I was watching Gujarat play Mumbai and I saw this kid running in with an unusual action and trying to bowl 12 consecutive yorkers. I thought, ‘Bloody hell, I’ve never seen that before.’ And he was quick,” Wright told The Times.
Seeing Bumrah’s potential, Wright instantly went to Parthiv Patel to find out more about the Indian bowler.
“So I went to Parthiv Patel, whom I knew from my time as India’s coach, and I said, ‘Who’s that?’ He said, ‘That’s Boom.’ We signed him straight away, you didn’t have to go through an auction then,” Wright said.
Wright further narrated how even Sachin Tendulkar was awestruck by Bumrah’s raw talent during Mumbai Indians’ nets.
“The first game of the IPL was at Bangalore. We had nets and I sorted it out that Sachin would face him and at the end of the session, Sachin came to me and said, ‘John, who is that kid?’ I said, ‘That’s Boom.’ He said, ‘He’s really hard to pick up.’ I could have jumped for joy,” he said.
Speaking about his initial troubles, Wright also discussed how many do not remember that Bumrah didn’t have the smoothest start to his professional career.
“He’s a great kid, very clever. But people forget that he didn’t play much the next two seasons and he struggled a bit while he was working it all out. It took a while, and everybody forgets that part of the story sometimes,” Wright said.
Bumrah is an indispensable part of the Indian team. He was a star performer during India’s T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year. The 31-year-old pacer also had a brilliant start to the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign in Australia winning player-of-the-match award in the series opener.
