Learned everything from TV, without any formal coaching: Jasprit Bumrah

India's premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has had a couple of good Tests in Australia, said that he started bowling with a season ball at the age of 16-17, honed his skills by watching television and moreover, claims that he never got any formal coaching.

Bumrah is the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing series against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 with 12 scalps at 11.25, including a fifer and a four-wicket haul. “I started my cricket quite late. I was not a tearaway quick because at six, seven, I didn’t play cricket,” Bumrah told Fox Cricket.

“I started cricket with the season ball probably at 16, 17. So I watched the television and picked up cricket. I’d got no formal coaching ever.

“So I learned everything through the television and, you know, somehow picked up cues and kept on finding my own solutions. So that’s worked with me till date that, you know, I come into a setup. I rely on my own instincts and gut. So yeah, that’s how I picked up.”

The 31-year-old also opened up about the reason behind his run-up and his unique bowling action. “When I used to play cricket as a youngster, there used to be benches over there. So I couldn’t go any further than that. So I couldn’t go through that. So that was the limit that we had,” he said.

“So we used to keep it as a boundary. So I used to run in from there. So when I came into serious cricket, I tried to run more. Initially I did run a lot more, but it used to have no difference to my pace. It used to stay the same.

“So at that time I thought, okay, might as well conserve some energy to bowl faster for a long period of time. So I had this and it did, it made no difference to my bowling. So I thought I’ll keep it with me.”

The pacer, who has played 42 Tests since making his debut in 2018, also revealed that no coach tried to change his action as they saw no merit in it. “I don’t think a lot of people believed in me because they thought that this bowling action will not last for long. He’ll play for six months, seven months," he said

“So not really a lot of people worked on me or, you know, gave me inputs that, you know, I think this is useful or you should stop doing that because I don’t think they saw a lot of merit.

“I think that worked out in my favour. I was self-reliant then and I had to have a lot of self-belief and find out solutions on my own. So yes, nobody tried to change me, but nobody gave any extra solutions."

Bumrah led India to victory in the first Test in Perth, but the hosts bounced back well in the second Test in Adelaide to level the series. The action now shifts to Brisbane for the third Test, starting December 14 (Saturday).

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