“I’ve been away for a while now. I’ll be happy to see my mother at home,” said a candid Jasprit Bumrah when asked about playing in Ahmedabad.
On the road and away from home due to a long injury rehab and multiple check-ins and check-outs of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), the 29-year-old will return to the city where he first fell in love with the game and started an incredible journey from the multi-purpose ground of the Nirman High School in Vastrapur.
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Nestled between numerous housing societies, resembling the MIG and LIG flats in Delhi, the exterior of the school is not intimidating but the moment you take the handful of steps to the main lobby, a picture of Jasprit Bumrah is displayed with pride on the notice board.
“Ex-student of Nirman. Jasprit Bumrah we are proud of you,” reads the caption around a framed image of the seamer in Mumbai Indians colours, sporting a French beard.
The moment you take the camera out to record the display on the notice board, a peon quickly rises from the reception desk and warns you to not record without “management permission”.
After a little persuasion and pleas, he relents with a smile. When asked why the school is so empty and without activity, he reminds, with a dash of taunt, “It’s 3 pm, sir, the school gets over by 1 pm”.
A quick tour of the facilities, more importantly, the cricket nets, was next. Pushed in the back corner of the premises was a multi-purpose ground where cricket and football co-exist. Just two nets, almost no grass on the ground and there it was, home of the Nirman Cricket Academy.
Two adjacent nets with worn-out separators and absolutely underprepared playing surface. Even the field around the net was in bad shape and you wonder whether seeds of the short run-up and the Bumrah yorker were sown here.
There was no way one could bowl here with the conventional longer run-up for quicks or even think about hitting lengths on that playing surface. Keep pinging the stumps seems to be the ideal approach and an important weapon in Bumrah’s armoury looks like a forced inclusion in the formative years. For Bumrah, it just wasn’t studying in this school and starting his cricketing journey here. It was also about studying in a school where his mother was then a vice-principal and would later retire as a principal.
A few kilometres away is the Goyal Intercity where India’s pace spearhead grew up. Right from the main gate, you can spot the C-4 building which had Bumrah’s house. Nothing fancy but a housing society where the proximity of the buildings, unlike the well-planned and well-distanced modern societies in the metros, echoed warmth.
It’s been a long time since the Bumrahs left the society and moved to a plush neighbourhood in the city but the guard, who hasn’t seen the Indian superstar in years, remembers him coming here for a visit to his friend.
“He hasn’t come here recently but came some years back in the night to visit his friends who still live here. Other than that, he hasn’t been here that often,” says the guard.
Everyone in the vicinity is excited to see their local boy in action during the biggest cricket clash in the ecosystem. Even Bumrah echoed similar sentiments after playing a match-winning role in the clash against Afghanistan in Delhi.
“I have not played a one-day international there. I played a Test match. So yeah, the atmosphere is going to be exciting. I’m sure a lot of people are going to come. So, it will be a sight to see. So yeah, hoping for the best over there,” the speedster had said.
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