Former New Zealand captain John Wright has explained how he discovered a young Jasprit Bumrah.
As the former coach of both India and IPL side the Mumbai Indians, Wright was one day watching a Mumbai v Gujarat first-class game when a young Bumrah caught his eye.
Joining SENZ Mornings with Ian Smith, Wright explains how the unique paceman got his attention.
“I was watching a back end of a game when Mumbai were playing Gujarat,” Wright said.
“Mumbai were easily going to win, but there was this kid with a short run up and he bowled two overs of yorkers.
“He really interested me because I think sometimes when you’re looking at players – and you see this in other sports – you look for something a bit different or a bit special.
“What he had was pace, and the other thing was he was trying to bowl 12 yorkers on the trot and he did it quite well.”
Wright explained how he signed Bumrah to his first IPL contract and how he knew he was up to the level early on.
“I had a chat with Parthiv Patel who was the captain of Gujarat and was in the Indian team I coached,” Wright said.
“I said, ‘Well, who’s that kid?’, he said, ‘Oh, that’s Boom’, I replied ‘Who is Boom?’, and says, ‘It’s Jasprit, Jasprit Bumrah and he’s 18 years of age’.
“So, we signed him overnight and he joined us (Mumbai Indians), he was very young so I asked him to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar.
“It turned out to be music to my ears because at the end of the net Sachin came up to me and said, ‘John, that kid is hard to pick up’, so that’s how it all started.”
Now aged 27, Bumrah has gone on to take 84 Test wickets for India at an average of just 22.10.