'I don't really pay attention to outside noise as it doesn’t really help.'
Jasprit Bumrah understands that there will be varied opinions about his bowling and there is no point losing one's cool on outside noise, on which he has no control.
The pacer had a reasonably disappointing outing in India's defeat in the second Test at the Wanderers following which his performance came under a lot of scrutiny.
"Nothing out of ordinary and I wasn't giving extra attention. I was not really too angry and I was focussed on the present and did what I had to," said Bumrah, who took five wickets for 42 runs in the third Test, at the end of Day 3 in the third Test, on Wednesday.
Someone asked if outside noise really bothers the team. Bumrah smiled wryly and replied: "Basically, you summed up the question and answered it as well. Their success is by product and basically what we do is to have a routine and follow that. Some days I would get wickets, some days somebody else will get wickets."
Criticism or praise doesn't overtly bother Bumrah, who now has seven five-wicket hauls.
"There will be doubters and there will be people praising you and that is something that an individual has to decide. I don't really pay attention to outside noise as it doesn’t really help.
"When I bowl, I have it in my control and I try to bring in my perspective towards bowling, try to avoid what's going on, may be some people might like my bowling and some people might not," he said.
Bumrah refused to quote any "Magic Number" which could challenge the South Africans, but maintained that compared to the first two Tests, this one at Newlands is on the flatter side and batters will get value for their shots once the ball gets old as the strip remains "true" in terms of bounce.
"It is a new ball wicket; it swings with the new ball and as seam goes down, batting becomes relatively easy. We have seen that trend and we will try to stitch up a partnership and capitalise from there on."
Normally someone who gives very cliched answers, the recluse Bumrah for once got out of his shell when a scribe asked how much of credit should Virat Kohli deserve considering that a bowler's development is directly linked with a captain's faith in his abilities?
"Bowler's development also depends on how hard the bowler works as well," was Bumrah's answer. It was very significant considering that during the previous regime it became almost like mandatory to credit the erstwhile support staff for team's bowling success.
Mohammed Shami bucked the trend during the first Test when he said that "credit should go to the individual who is actually putting in hard yards."
Bumrah on the day followed suit.
However, he did say that it has been a "wonderful experience" to play under Virat Kohli.
