The Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah was recently asked about how to get rid of Steve Smith. The cricketer was quick to respond that his first wicket in the ODIs was Smith.
“My first one-day wicket is Steve Smith. There’s no particular way that you get a batsman out. You study what the wicket is doing, then select the best option. What I look to do against any good batsman, is to have patience. A Test match is a patience game. You wait for the batsmen to make mistakes. Whoever loses their patience first is the one who’s going to suffer.”
The pacer also revealed that his favourite format of the game is Test cricket.
If you do well in Tests, you can do well in any format. Because people saw me in the IPL first, they think that’s what made me. But the major thing that helped me shape my career was first class cricket. In fact 2016 was the first year, after playing for the country, that I started playing IPL regularly. Before that, I hardly played a few games. In first class cricket you learn bowling in different conditions, bowling to different people, travelling and quickly identifying what the wicket is doing, what different opponents are trying to do. You learn your game.
Bumrah who has recovered from the injury will return to action in the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka starting from January 5.
Appa, Gavaskar and cricket