The Untold Story About Jasprit Bumrah Mentoring Young Cricketers In Gujarat

Former Rajasthan Royals (RR) seamer Siddharth Trivedi, who has played some domestic cricket with Jasprit Bumrah at Gujarat, has revealed that whenever the ace pacer is not playing for India and is in his hometown, Ahmedabad, he spends considerable time mentoring young players.

“He spends a lot of time with young boys and girls. When he is training, obviously, a lot of youngsters would prefer to pick his brain. He never stops anyone from approaching him. In fact, he goes out of his way to have interaction with them,” Trivedi told the Indian Express.

Former Gujarat captain Priyank Panchal, also a close friend of Bumrah, highlighted the pacer’s mental strength and patience, sharing how he never gets frustrated when a catch is dropped or a fielder misfields off his bowling.

“In Ahmedabad, we don’t have a big cricketing culture like Mumbai, but he has never believed he can’t be the best. Mentally he is a very strong individual, who can figure out when is the right time to listen and not to listen. He is smart when it comes to his bowling. He self analyses his bowling a lot. Of course, there are coaches and data analysts as well, but he too puts in a lot of effort to improve,” said Panchal, who recently retired from all forms of cricket.

“When someone drops a catch or misfields of your bowling, any bowler will have a go at the fielder. With Bumrah, I’ve never seen that side. He will just smile. I’ve never seen him discourage any player at any level. If anyone fumbles, he would be the first one to go and have a word. He should be the last person getting these trolls and abuses.”

Bumrah has been managing his workload by missing select games and series, having previously suffered serious back injuries. The Indian team management has been careful to preserve his fitness for all major series and ICC events. Despite this, he faced heavy criticism during India’s five-Test series in England for “picking and choosing” matches. Before the series began, he had informed management that he would be available for only three Tests.

As a result, he played the first, third, and fourth Tests, sitting out the second and fifth. Ironically, India lost two of the three matches in which he played, while the games he missed included both wins and a draw. Although the outcomes were coincidental, Bumrah faced significant trolling from fans and former cricketers. Manprit Juneja, another former Gujarat teammate and close friend of Bumrah, said the pacer is mentally strong but not immune to criticism. He compared Bumrah’s resilience to tennis legend Roger Federer.

“With him, he knows there is support from the coaches, the selectors and the BCCI who are managing his workload. At the same time, when some of the former players do question his integrity and stuff, it does affect him. But knowing him, he has always been a person who is strong mentally… so someone commenting about it or a random twitter handle going after him isn’t going to affect him one bit. He is a thorough professional who understands how all of it works,” said Juneja.

“Like I said, he is strong mentally. Whenever he is down, he always wants to comeback stronger. That’s how he was when he started and that’s how he is now. For me, he is like what Roger Federer was to tennis after he turned 30. He showed he can win titles at 36. And people forget it is not easy for a fast bowler to play all three formats at 32. If you got to play long, you have to be smart and understand your body. When someone does it, I don’t understand what the problem is? He is a polished and a matured individual, who will always put the team forward.”

Juneja also highlighted Bumrah’s strong support system, including his close friends and family. “He has a very close-knit group of friends from the housing society with whom he is still in touch. When he wants to switch off from the game completely, then they are his best support system. He knows how to keep himself away from the noise.

“If there is time, he will play pickleball or ten-pin bowling. If none of us are available, he just relaxes at his PlayStation Den. He is very good at that. Of course, all this is only beyond his family time. Since Angad came in, he has been his ultimate preference. He always puts his family first.”