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'Sachin came to me and said...': Former India coach narrates how he discovered Jasprit Bumrah in Ahmedabad
Former India coach John Wright narrates the story of how he discovered Jasprit Bumrah while doing scouting for Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad.
Jasprit Bumrah is arguably the greatest all-format pacer in the world right now and the 31-year-old continues to go from strength to strength. The speedster is currently the No.1 ranked bowler in Tests and it is his brilliance that landed India their second T20 World Cup title earlier this year. However, the credit for discovering Bumrah goes to the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians and former Team India head coach John Wright.
Bumrah burst onto the scene in 2013 after being scouted by Mumbai Indians' management, and ever since then, he has been part of the franchise. In 2013, he played just two matches, however, from 2014 onwards, he became a regular member of the five-time IPL champions.
Former Team India head coach John Wright has now revealed how he ended up discovering Bumrah and how he realised his true potential. John Wright was Mumbai Indians' head coach for two years 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,” John Wright told The Times.
“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,” he added.
‘Sachin came to me and asked who is that kid’
John Wright then further narrated how even the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar was left impressed when Bumrah came to the 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," said John Wright.
“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," he added.
Jasprit Bumrah is arguably the greatest finding of Mumbai Indians so far and every Indian cricket fan needs to express their gratitude towards the franchise and John Wright.
Earlier, former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel had famously narrated how he had told about Jasprit Bumrah to Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). However, the franchise was not able to pick the pacer up in their squad.
