Known for his lethal bowling, India pacer Jasprit Bumrah can scare any opposition batter in the world. With both into their maiden Indian Premier League seasons in 2013, former Australia and Mumbai Indians pacer Mitchell Johnson had to face the wrath of a 19-year old Bumrah.
Advertisement
The right-arm bowler had a valid reason for bowling a bouncer to a seasoned campaigner such as Johnson, who himself had built a reputation of threatening batters over the years.
Bumrah, who continues to represent Indians in the biggest T20 league around the world, had disclosed the reason in a conversation with Johnson after they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2017 Qualifier 2 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“Usually, when you are coming out of U-19 cricket, so, you think you have pace. So, you try to experiment it on bowlers because otherwise if you hit the batsmen [in the nets], they don’t like it. So, I thought I’ll try something on the bowlers and, so, it was a good day, isn’t it?,” Bumrah responded to Johnson in a conversation for iplt20.com.
Both Bumrah (3-1-7-3) and Johnson (4-0-28-2) bowled impact-generating spells in Mumbai’s win over Kolkata. Bumrah, who was Johnson’s junior at MI a decade ago, had played all 16 matches IPL 2017 matches as compared to a couple of outingds in his first IPL season. Johnson, on the other hand, had played just five matches in their third title-winning campaign (second with Johnson) six years ago.
It is to be noted that Johnson enjoyed a couple of successful one-year stints with Indians in 2013 and 2017. Johnson, the last of whose 256 international matches across formats had come in 2015, had plied his trade for Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) between his two stints for MI. The left-arm bowler’s last IPL season had come for the Knight Riders in 2018.
Jasprit Bumrah Had Hit Mitchell Johnson’s Helmet During IPL 2013
During an appearance on a podcast named What The Duck with Vikram Sathaye, Bumrah had recalled how a younger version of himself wanted to leave an impression around his ability to bowl fast. That being said, in his attempt, he managed to irk Johnson. Johnson’s reply was such that Bumrah didn’t even bat once in the nets that season.
“I wanted to show I can also bowl fast. So, what I did as a 19-year-old, I thought I’ll bowl a bouncer. So, I bowled a bouncer and his [Mitchell Johnson] helmet swirled. So, I thought the ball must’ve hit him. But I thought he’s okay. Then he came up when we were sitting. So, he told me that whenever you are batting please tell me, I’ll take the new ball and I’ll bowl to you,” Bumrah had told Sathaye.
Bumrah, who picked three wickets in IPL 2013, didn’t get to bat in either of the two matches he played that season. A specialist bowler, his first opportunity to bat in an IPL match had come in the following season. As Johnson’s fan, he even picked him in Mumbai’s All Time XI.
