• Home
  • Who Said What
  • He Was Labelled White Ball Cricketer Ravi Shastri Lauds Bumrahs Test Resurgence

'He Was Labelled White-Ball Cricketer' - Ravi Shastri Lauds Bumrah's Test Resurgence

image-lsfvj5fvBumrah bowled superbly vs ENG in Vizag (AP)

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri recalled a conversation with Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the latter's Test debut to highlight how the pacer fought stereotypes to not only make a space for himself in Test cricket but also excel in the red ball format.

Jasprit Bumrah scaled the ranks and witnessed a meteoric rise in red-ball cricket after making his debut against South Africa back in 2018 under the reign of head coach Ravi Shastri. 

While now Bumrah may be India's man of crisis, Shastri recently made a startling revelation to highlight some individuals' hypocrisy. 

In a conversation with Michael Atherton, the former head coach disclosed that Bumrah was labeled a white ball cricket specialist against his own will. Nobody even bothered to ask him if he intended to try his hand at the red ball.

"I remember my first call to him, it was in Kolkata. I asked him would he be interested in Test cricket. He said that would be the biggest day of his life," Shastri recalled.

However, Ravi Shastri saw some potential and approached Jasprit Bumrah with a Test call-up proposal. The former cricketer was moved by Jasprit's response. Apparently, the pacer said that playing Test cricket would be the momentous day of his life.

"He was labelled as a white-ball cricketer without asking him. But I knew. I wanted to see how hungry he was. I told him to get ready, be prepared. I told him I was going to unleash him in South Africa," Shastri said.

Shastri wasted no time further and assured him of a call-up in the South Africa series. He also revealed that Bumrah was desperate to don the whites and play alongside the likes of Virat Kohli. Bumrah understood the importance of red-ball cricket and how achieving success in the Test format is the ultimate milestone for any cricketer whatsoever. 

"He's so excited to be playing and doing well in Test cricket," said Shastri who debunked the notion of Bumrah being solely a white-ball specialist for his exploits with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL," he added.

As it stands, Jasprit Bumrah turned into an all-format specialist bowler and went on to scale new heights in international cricket. Bumrah recently scalped 150 Test wickets and also became the only bowler in the history of the sport to have achieved no.1 ICC ranking across all formats.