Having successfully completed his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, the right-arm pacer was named captain of a young T20I squad, which will take on Ireland in a three-match series at The Village in Dublin.
Speaking on the eve of the series, Bumrah admitted that the path to recovery has been challenging. He, however, asserted that he remained positive right through the journey and never had any self-doubts over making a comeback.
"When injury takes time to heal, it can be frustrating. Instead of having self-doubt, I was thinking how to get fit and make a comeback. It is important to give the body time and respect. I never took it as a dark phase and thought my career could be over. I was looking for solutions and when solutions came I was feeling good," Bumrah said at a press conference on Thursday.
On spending time away from the game, the fast bowler explained that he was keen to find solutions to the problem that had come his way. And once he found the same, he was comfortable with the rehab. He also added that being away from the game allowed him to spend some quality time with his family, which he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
"When you are facing an injury you are trying to solve that problem, not what the world is saying. I wanted to recuperate. You learn to enjoy the game a lot more. I looked it as an off season. So I got to spend time with family. So was looking at the positives. At the same time, I missed being away from action," Bumrah added.
The 29-year-old stated that while he was keen to recover soon, he was equally aware of the fact that he needed to respect the time his body needed to heal. On how the injury-enforced break has changed him, Bumrah replied that he is a lot hungrier having been away from the game.
"I met a lot of players at NCA. Sometimes things are not in your control. The body needs time to recover and you need to respect. When you come back you have the hunger. When you are playing continuous cricket you don't know what an off season looks like. In this phase, as long as my physical restrictions were over I wanted to work on my fitness and bowling. I was following how the team was doing and was good to meet the players," he concluded.
Bumrah has so far represented India in 30 Tests, 72 ODIs and 60 T20Is, claiming 128, 121 and 70 wickets respectively.
--By A Cricket Correspondent
