Learnt a lot from Malinga, says Bumrah

Pallekele, India pacer Jasprit Bumrah says the zeal to learn something new from every game has helped him survive in international cricket. Bumrah, who took a career-best 5/27 in the third ODI against Sri Lanka on Sunday, said he learnt a lot from Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga while playing with him for Mumbai Indians.
“You have to constantly learn new things and that’s been my aim,” Bumrah said after India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to seal the five-match series 3-0. “In 2013, when I joined Mumbai Indians as a 19-year-old, Malinga had already been there for three-four seasons, and I learnt a lot from him. For someone who hadn’t played first class cricket, talking to him and learning in the process was very valuable.”
Quite remarkably, Bumrah has already played different roles in the team. After starting out as a first-change bowler, he turned into a death-overs’ specialist, and now he’s sharing the new ball with Bhuvneshwar Kumar. “I am happy as far as I am able to contribute to the team’s success. If the team wants me to bowl first-change, I am happy to do that. If they want me to bowl with the new ball, I am happy to do that, too. It’s always good to contribute to the team’s success, be it with the new ball or the old ball,” he said.
Bumrah stressed on the need to keep evolving to keep up with the demands of international cricket. “With the kind of technology we’ve today, batsmen will line you up if you have only one or two tricks. Once they start watching your videos, they would know what to expect and how to deal with it. So you have to keep on evolving and adapting to different situations. If you are just a one-trick pony, you won’t last long,” he said.
On Sunday, India’s victory was marred by crowd trouble towards the end. Some spectators, not happy with the performance of their team, threw water bottles onto the field. “We were not thinking about it too much. Obviously, it’s unfortunate. We were just happy that the game carried on and the situation was taken care of,” said Bumrah.