Indian bowling coach Paras Mhambrey during an interview on July 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Paras Mhambrey, India men’s cricket team’s outgoing bowling coach, has paid a rich tribute to Jasprit Bumrah, the leading bowler across formats in the world at the moment.
“I feel Bumrah is a freak,” Mhambrey told The Hindu in Mumbai on July 15. “He is once-in-a-generation-bowler that this game has seen. If you look at each and every format — T20, he is up there, one-dayers he is up there, even Test cricket, he is right up there.”
Mhambrey, who joined the Men in Blue in November 2021 as part of Rahul Dravid’s support staff, signed off his tenure with the T20 World Cup triumph last year. For almost a year during his tenure, Bumrah’s absence due to a back injury haunted India. But after his recovery, Bumrah has taken his performance a notch higher than earlier.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to take credit, saying that I have told Bumrah: ‘this is the way we need to go. This is what you need to bowl’ you know. But I wish I can take that credit,” Mhambrey said, with a chuckle.
“But the credit completely goes to him. Just the way he just bounced back from that injury, was heartening to see. I haven’t seen many people going through a back surgery, coming back and being as or may be more effective than what he was earlier.
“There is lot of maturity out there, ready to willingly take responsibility in the team. He knows that his job is not only to go and win games for the country, which he does fabulously, but his role is a lot more to be the guiding light around the younger guys.”
Mhambrey was in probables for the 1996 World Cup but missed out on the final squad. While he summed up tenure with the national team as “satisfying”, he was thrilled to have been a part of the set-up that lifted the ICC Trophy in his last assignment.
“You are a world champion, a part of that team. Nothing like that feeling.. and also the satisfaction… all the amount of work that you have done, it’s been rewarded,” Mhambrey said.
“There may have been a lot of lows, less highs. But to be able to overcome that and just finish the term with the World Cup in what was my last assignment, to be able to finish with the win, I think that’s satisfying and rewarding. So exiting with happy memories and a lot of learnings.”