IND vs ENG 2024: “Bumrah bhai keeps advising me on the yorker” – Mukesh Kumar

India’s rising star Mukesh Kumar has been rising through the ranks after making his debut against West Indies in 2023. Kumar has revealed that Jasprit Bumrah has been advising him on how to nail the yorker.

The right-arm pacer from Bihar has impressed with his ability to bowl the yorker accurately in the death overs. Kumar has picked six wickets in two Test matches whereas he has scalped five wickets in six ODI games. The 30-year-old has snared a dozen wickets in 14 T20I games he has played.

With Mohammad Shami not being picked in the first two Test matches against England due to injury, Kumar has a chance of making his home Test debut.

“Bumrah bhai keeps advising me on the yorker in particular. He says, ‘Tu bahut acchha yorker daalta hai. Jo kar raha hai, bas wahi karta jaa’ (You bowl the yorker well. Just keep doing what you have been). We talk quite regularly and he gives me other suggestions as well, which are obviously invaluable,” Mukesh Kumar said in an interaction with Telegraph India.

Kumar revealed that Bumrah told him to build pressure on South Africa by bowling dot balls in the Cape Town Test. Kumar picked a total of four wickets in the second Test, which India won by seven wickets.

“The process is quite similar to what myself, Akash (Deep) and Ishan Porel used to do in Bengal. Here also we discuss our respective roles: who will go on all-out attack and who focuses on keeping things tight with maiden overs. In Cape Town, Bumrahbhai was telling me to keep bowling those dot balls as that would add to their (Proteas) pressure (in the second innings). Such was the situation that I had to bowl those, which eventually proved to be beneficial for the team,” Mukesh said.

India and England will take on each other in the first Test match from 25th January onwards at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.