India's bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah continues to leave an impact in the ongoing ICC World Cup, with his latest exploits triggering a Pakistan collapse and giving India a famous win over their traditional rivals in Ahmedabad on Saturday. But what also caught the attention of his fans and viewers worldwide is his new 'temple point' celebration.
A key contributor in India's 3/3 wins so far in the round-robin phase of this ODI World Cup on home soil, Bumrah, who made a strong comeback after a prolonged injury hiatus, has taken eight wickets and shares the top spot in the list of wicket-takers with New Zealanders Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry.
Bumrah began the tournament by taking six wickets against Australia and Afghanistan. The first time he was seen doing the 'temple point' celebration was after taking the wicket of Afghanistan opener Ibrahim Zadran.
Against Pakistan, Bumrah's spell of 2/19 started a Pakistan batting collapse, which saw the visitors slipping from a confident 155/2 to getting bowled out for 191.
Talking to ICC Digital Insider, Bumrah likened his new celebration style to Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.
"I had no intentions of making it viral or spreading it everywhere," said Player-of-the-Match Bumrah after India's seven-wicket victory over Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
“It just came to my mind. I'd seen Rashford do it as well. I thought it was cool. There's no particular big back story behind it. At the end, I decided to do it," the right-arm pacer added.
"Usually I'm too tired to celebrate. But that is one occasion where I did celebrate.”
India, who have won the World Cup twice in 1983 and 2011, will next take on Bangladesh in Pune on October 19.
"We're not thinking about the momentum. The team is right now thinking about recovery,” Bumrah said. "We've played three games back-to-back and the result has been on the good side because our preparation has been good."
