Always tried to emulate fast bowlers, not captains: Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah became India's first fast bowling captain in 35 years, but he is not interested in creating a trend for pace-bowling captains in international cricket. Ahead of the rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston on Friday, Bumrah felt that an ideal candidate, irrespective of their role, should lead the side.

"For me batsmen, bowlers and wicketkeepers are all cricketers. I have never seen myself as a bowling captain. We already have players who have been led the side and I can take guidance from them. There is no added thinking that I'll bring something new to the table because of I'm a bowler. It has always been about the winning," Bumrah said in a virtual press conference on Thursday .

Pacers have rarely been named Test captains in men's international cricket with Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Courtney Walsh and Wasim Akram being some of the exceptions to lead their sides for a considerable amount of time.

Recently, Australia bucked the trend by naming Pat Cummins as the successor to Tim Paine.

"Whoever is the best candidate to take a team forward should be made the captain. If that player is a fast bowlers, its good, but it doesn't matter even if its a batter or a spinner," Bumrah said.

When asked who were childhood idols as a captain, Bumrah said that he has always been a fan of fast bowlers.

"There was no captaincy idol for me as a child. I was a fan of fast bowlers since I was a kid and always tried to emulate them," the 28-year old said.

Countering England and Joe Root

England are coming off a superb 3-0 win over New Zealand. Bumrah said that his team is not focusing on the aggressive style employed by the hosts under new head coach Brendon McCullum.

"Good for them that they won the series against New Zealand. But it is upto to us to focus on what we can do well and execute our plans. Yes, they are playing good cricket and we want to play good cricket as well," the pacer said.

When asked who will replace Rohit Sharma, who is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, Bumrah said he cannot reveal the team combination.

"Obviously we will miss Rohit. He's a very important player for us. But we cannot reveal our combinations right now," he said.

Speaking about the pitch at Edbaston, Bumrah said: "We had a look and got a fair idea on how it should behave. We have decided on the team combination, but we are not going to reveal anything now."

Bumrah also relished the challenge of going up against Joe Root, who has been in stunning form recently, including two hundreds and a fifty against New Zealand.

"I wanted to be tested against the best. He is batting really well and credit to him for get into a good space. He know what he needs to do in English conditions and abroad. We have our plans on how to stop him from making runs," he said.