Ahmedabad, March 6 Priyank Panchal vividly remembers the buzz surrounding a teenage Jasprit Bumrah, who was feared for his fast and accurate bouncers during his school cricket days.
As the Indian team prepares for another crucial ICC clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday, the former India A and Gujarat captain Panchal reminisced about the early days of India's greatest ever fast bowler, who is a cricketing icon from this part of India.
Panchal, a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket, has 29 first-class centuries and was part of India's Test squad for the 2021-22 series in South Africa.
"I was a few years senior to Jassi (Bumrah), and by the time he made it to the Gujarat team, I was already playing in the Ranji Trophy. But like with any talented kid, we heard that this teenager was making waves in school cricket," Panchal told
"During those days, school tournaments were played on matting wickets, so the ball would travel quicker than natural turf pitches. But at the school level, you don't hear about 15-16-year-olds scaring other boys with consistent and accurate bouncers. He had an aura about him even before he made his Ranji debut," Panchal fondly recalls.
But Panchal's first proper interaction with Bumrah was during Gujarat's pre-season trip to Pune ahead of the Ranji Trophy season.
"Although there was an age gap between us, he was one of the best roommates I had. He was a quiet boy, who just believed in hard work and wouldn't make a fuss about it. Obviously, if he considers you a friend and opens up to you, he is a great companion," Panchal says.
Like the rest of the world, Panchal agrees that Bumrah is a "genius," but having seen an artist at work firsthand and played hundreds of deliveries during early days, he would vouch about the kind of work Bumrah puts in his craft.
"When he started playing first-class cricket, with his action, he had a mean bouncer, an effective inswinger, and the yorker was developing. At that point, he didn't have an outswinger. That is one delivery that he learned on the job. Hours of practice, fantastic understanding of technical aspects, and fine-tuning has now made him a master of outgoing delivery too."
"If you see, his outswing starts on the leg-middle line and finishes on the off-stump, which makes it so difficult for the batter to negotiate," Panchal explains.
For Panchal, what sets Bumrah apart is his intensity, which is unmatched apart from his peerless game sense.
"If I talk about Test matches, the intensity while bowling the first over and maybe the 16th over at the end of the day, there won't be any drop in pace. This is because Jassi never thought about 'how to protect his body'. He has always pushed the limits of his body without caring that he could get seriously injured. For him, whether it's a match or practice, it's 'all or nothing'."
In fact, Panchal has witnessed firsthand how angry Bumrah could get if he was driven on the rise even during practice sessions.
"God forbid, if you are a batter who has driven Jassi on the rise or he has bowled slightly fuller in the nets, be rest assured, the next ball could either be a chin music or a toe crusher," he laughs, adding, "Often at the nets, we would jokingly tell him that go easy on certain batters who aren't comfortable against short ball and could get injured."
After facing him at the Ranji Trophy nets, Panchal understood how Bumrah has entered a different league when he faced him in the nets during India's tour of South Africa back in 2021-22, where he was one of the reserve openers.
"By that time, he had become a complete bowler. His homework and reading of conditions were very different. At the Ranji level, most of the fast bowlers you face go a bit fuller in search of swing and don't hit the deck. At the international level, the key is to hit the deck and change lengths as per conditions," Panchal states.
He then cites an example of a Test match that India won at Centurion and Bumrah got five wickets (2 in the first innings and 3 in the second).
"In the second innings, he bowled one over and hit the lengths that he had hit in the first. It took him six balls to understand that he needed to change the length and he did it promptly. Look at the semi-final at Wankhede yesterday. It was getting tricky, and look at the lengths he bowled on a batting paradise."
Bumrah is 32 years old and still plays all three formats with 500 international wickets to his name.
Panchal wants Bumrah to continue playing for at least eight more years across formats.
"It is a pure joy watching him operate. I want him to play for at least eight more years across formats. You just don't wish that he stops."
