ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: India's Jasprit Bumrah draws inspiration from 'role model' mother, credits family for success in sport

Jasprit Bumrah has fast emerged as one of the hardest seamers to face in the world. His seam bowling, ability to get the ball to reverse swing, get the ball to climb up into batsmen and arguably his most lethal - yorkers - has made him India's frontline bowler in all formats. Skipper Virat Kohli and South Africa's Hashim Amla were all praise for him in India's opening fixture at the 50-over extravaganza where Bumrah took two wickets.

Jasprit Bumrah after picking the wicket of Hashim Amla. (AP)

He has credited his family, especially mother, for doing a lot for him and said she is his role model. "I lost my father when I was young so I've got a close unit - a sister and my mother. So I'm very close to them. Whenever things go well or don't go well, we keep the same atmosphere at home. We're happy, grateful of whatever I've got as a cricketer. My mother has done a lot for me. She's a school principal, she just retired. There's a lot of hard work for us. You don't need to go anywhere for inspiration, it's at home," he said in an interview to ICC posted on the eve of India's fixture against Afghanistan.

West Indies batsmen Chris Gayle and Andre Russell stated Bumrah was a difficult bowler to face while singling out his yorkers as the pick of the balls. Gayle said, "Bumrah is very deceptive, gets the reverse swing, good yorker, good pace. He's got the X-factor as well. He's different from all fast bowlers." Russell, meanwhile, said, "(He's the) most challenging bowler. Bumrah bowls good yorkers at good pace."

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Bumrah revealed the reason for his trademark delivery. "Since I used to play in the backyard, that is the only delivery I used to bowl quite a lot. I used to see on TV bowlers take a lot of wickets with the yorkers so I know that's the only way to get wickets."

India have three wins out of four matches with one getting washed out against New Zealand. In the first two matches, India beat South Africa and Australia for a dominating start. Bumrah, who has picked five wickets in his debut World Cup, spoke about both games and the different start while bowling. "It was always important to start well in the tournament like this. Against South Africa, we saw there was some help in the wicket so didn't need to run behind wickets as there was decent help. Idea was to keep on bowling in good areas, consistent line and length. We capitalised on the two early wickets."

"The wicket at The Oval (against Australia) was different. Most of the teams that hold their nerves till the end will win most of the games in this tournament. We tried to do that even if we didn't get early wickets. We were just keeping the run rate under control and hopefully remain in the clear in the end. So we were just keeping all the processes simple, keeping a clear head and create pressure as a bowling unit."

In the last year, India's bowling unit has earned more praise than the batting with seamers and spinners both being lauded for picking twenty wickets in Test matches. Bumrah believes it is important to win as a unit and individual achievements make little difference. "It's always a great feeling that as a bowling unit we get a lot of respect everywhere. But our aim was always to do well as a unit which we're doing right now. Obviously, our nation is known for great batsmen. Last year we were playing a lot of away tours where if you want to win, you have to do well as a fast bowling unit. So you're working hard towards that. So all those processes gave us a lot of rewards and they're being reaped now."

"It's a lot of fun. For me, I could bowl and bowl and bowl. When you see the stumps flying, that's the best feeling," he said further revealing his passion for the job he does.

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