A little-known Jasprit Bumrah had first hogged the limelight when he made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2013. Not his performance, but out-of-the-box bowling action garnered the attention of the viewers. Since there was mega-auction in IPL 2014, MI had to release the pacer.

But they were keen to get his services and bought him for Rs 1.2 crore in the IPL 2014 auction. The signing turned out to be a historic one and he has been with them since then. Bumrah rose to fame during his early days at MI and went on to play for India A in 2014. Two years later, he donned the India cap on the Australia tour. Not just MI, Bumrah also leads Team India’s bowling attack across all formats.

Bumrah was first spotted by John Wright. The former India coach though wasn’t there to watch Bumrah. Speaking to Dinesh Karthik on Sky Sports, Bumrah revealed that Wright had come there to watch Axar Patel, who was also part of MI in IPL 2013. 

“I was just selected for the T20 competition, and that was just my second game and it was against Mumbai. So, John Wright had come to watch Akshar. I didn’t know I would get picked. I didn’t pick a lot of wickets, I just picked one but I bowled really well, I didn’t give a lot of runs,” Bumrah told Karthik.

“So, he came to watch one more game. He enquired and PP (Parthiv Patel) told me that he was asking about me. I thought he was clearly joking and making fun of me. After a few days, I got a call from the Mumbai Indians and they asked me, ‘Are you interested?’ I said, ‘Of course, I am interested, that’s not even a question. Are you guys interested?'”

Bumrah has been MI since his debut and is expected to end his career with them. He was retained by the franchise ahead of IPL 2018 mega-auction and is unlikely to be back into the auction for the IPL 2022 auction. Bumrah has 115 wickets in 99 IPL matches.