'If it's been a bad day, I switch off...': Jasprit Bumrah on struggles with setbacks as T20 World Cup berth slips away

Jasprit Bumrah’s T20 World Cup was dashed on Friday as reports emerged that stress back fracture may force him to miss the T20 extravaganza Down Under. The 28-year-old pacer was also removed from the Indian squad competing in the home series against South Africa. Jasprit Bumrah was reportedly undergoing a scan in Bangalore, where National Cricket Academy (NCA) medical staff will take a final call on his World Cup participation. While it’s hard to imagine what Jasprit Bumrah is going through after possibly missing out on the Australia ticket, Bumrah did open up during an interview with GQ India on his struggles with setbacks and how he deals with them. “If it’s been a bad day, I switch off for a while. If my mind starts to wander, I divert it to something else,” said Bumrah. “Then I come back and I analyse. Good day or bad, I analyse it and tell myself to remember what produced results. I depend on my own evaluation, but when I don’t have answers then I look to people I trust and believe in. “Then I go to the coaches and seek advice. But after that, I filter the noise out, because at the end of the day I understand my game better than anyone else. I’ve made a career on my own.” Tragedy struck Bumrah early in his life as he lost his father at the age of five and forced the cricketer to grow early as he saw some tough days growing up. He credited her mother to keep the family together through the torrid time. “My mother had to start working. We had seen ups, and then one day we were back to zero. So now, when we are back to another high, we stay stable because we have seen that low. We know that we cannot go ­crazy. That period has taught us so much. “My mother has done so much for us, and we cannot ever repay her. We’ve bonded as a family because of what we’ve gone through and we’re very grateful for what we’ve received. We know how the world changes when things don’t go well. That’s why today we’re respectful of the good times and remain humble,” said Bumrah. Used to be an aggressive person: Bumrah The pacer has often terrorised batters with his accuracy in line and length and awkward bowling style but is not known for showing needless aggression on the field. There have been an incident or two in the past but thatt’s about it as the pacer said he was not always the calm guy he is now. “No, I was not always like this. In fact, when I started playing cricket it was the other way around. I was a little too aggressive, always on the go, always sitting on the edge… I could get angry really quickly. But then I realized that moving further if my emotions are not kept in check, then there’s going to be a lot of variation in my results,” Bumrah said. The pacer added that he understood that his aggression often caused him trouble than did favours and relied on his experience to get better off it. “I quickly understood that if this was the game that I always wanted to excel in, I needed to figure out how to control my emotions. Stability really helps. I learned that on the go; obviously you learn from experiences, you make mistakes. I chose to look at these experiences and then asked myself how I could get the best out of these situations,” said Bumrah. Read all the Latest News ****, Trending News ****, Cricket News ****, Bollywood News ****, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook****, Twitter and Instagram****.