Jasprit Bumrah: Lasith Malinga taught me how, when to use yorkers

New Delhi: There was an element of luck about Jasprit Bumrah's entry in to the Indian team.

An injury to frontline pacer Mohammed Shami forced the selectors to include the young pacer in the squad.

However there was nothing lucky about Bumrah's performance Down Under.

Bumrah's ability to bowl accurate yorkers on a consistent basis was widely appreciated on the tour.

While most Indian bowlers struggle to find the block hole, it came as a surprise that Bumrah had no such problems.

In an interview to the Times of India, the Gujarat pacer revealed that his Mumbai Indians teammate Lasith Malinga was in fact the reason behind his success.

“I used to bowl yorkers from an early stage with tennis balls. But it was at Mumbai Indians (MI) nets where I learnt to develop it as a lethal weapon. My MI teammate Lasith Malinga is a proponent of the art and was impressed with me. He taught me how and when to use yorkers. He would tell me how to vary the pace of the yorker and not to be predictable. In fact, I learnt to bowl the slow yorker from him,” he said.

The 22-year-old picked up eight wickets in 1 ODI and 2 T20Is against the might Aussies, further cementing his reputation one of the best young pace bowlers in India.