Virat gives me freedom to express myself: Burmrah

Photo: AP

London: India's new 'King of Death' Jasprit Bumrah has done enough to gain confidence of his skipper Virat Kohli, who in turn has given him freedom to express himself.

"It feels good that the captain has so much of confidence in you that he gives you freedom to do whatever you want. When this happens, a youngster like me can express himself and show what he is capable of, man-of-the-match Bumrah said at a mixed zone interaction after team’s win against South Africa.

With ability to bowl yorkers at will during slog overs, Bumrah is Kohli’s ‘go to man’ at the death. A tournament economy rate of 4.77 for someone who bowls bulk of his overs in back 10 is commendable.

But Bumrah is against being labelled as slog overs specialist.

"You know, we don’t focus on these things. You can’t just be labelled as death bowler or a swing bowler (in case of Bhuvneshwar Kumar), whenever you are given the ball, you have to contribute. You bowl according to situations whether at the death or at the beginning. The aim is to stick to a plan and execute it, Burmrah expressed his reservations being deemed as a ‘one trick pony’.

Touring England for the first time, Bumrah has been picking Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kohli’s brains.

"I take inputs from our senior bowlers who have played a lot in these conditions.  Our coach (Anil Kumble), Mahi Bhai, Virat gives us tips on what are the conditions, discuss plans. It’s of great help,” Bumrah said.

Like his senior partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah also agreed that there is no swing available for bowlers on tracks which are hard and good for batting.

"I don’t know as this is my first visit to England. I have not played here earlier but whatever I heard the ball swings here quite a lot. But so far there has not been any swing available. Bowlers have to adapt all the time. We focus on other options  to contain the batters.”

"The conditions were favouring the batsmen and wickets are also stable. You can’t bowl full and try to swing the ball. You have to contain the batsman and it worked in our favour. So even if I don’t get wickets, somebody else will get wickets. That was the basic plan, to bowl good, hard lengths,” he said.

The Gujarat pacer was all praise for the fielding unit.

"We have worked hard on our fielding and we always want to improve. First match was a little low on fielding aspect but we are working hard. It was a good day that we got few run outs as well.