It really was some debut. A wicket off the first ball he bowled, six wickets for just 12 runs, the best IPL bowling figures till date, and a key figure in an epic 2019 for Mumbai Indians. Alzarri Joseph is currently plying his trade at MI Emirates in the ILT20, a tournament he’s lighting up as well with his fiery spells. Here he is, in an exclusive chat with miemirates.com, speaking about that debut, sharing the dressing room with legends, his growth into becoming an all-format bowler, his pace and much more. Excerpts..

Your spell of 6/12 in the 2019 IPL season is still a part of MI folklore. They still happen to be the best bowling figures in IPL history. What are your memories of that day and how it happened?

Oh I remember that day. It was my IPL debut and it was a very special day for me considering the end result was also a win. The thing that stands for me about that day was that I took a wicket off the first ball. It was David Warner, a very important wicket in the context of that game. He was one of their top batters who could’ve taken the game away from us. That opened the game for us and set the tone for the rest of my spell. There was a lot of celebration and I got a lot of congratulations. I wasn’t aware it was a record until after the game. But it was a very good feeling to have everyone rally around you in the first game in a big franchise like Mumbai Indians.

That 2019 season was a special one for MI. Although you got injured midway, you played a key role in the team reaching the playoffs. How do you look back at that year?

It was very good to contribute to a title-winning season. I played three games but all in all, to be a part of it, to see it happen. I got the injury but I stayed along until the end of the season and celebrated with the guys as well. It was really good to be a part of that.                

How was it like to share the dressing room with Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah, two of the greatest bowlers in T20 history?

It was electric to see how these guys work. Malinga is Malinga, he’s the best at what he does. If you look at Bumrah, there’s not much you can say about him that’s not legendary. He’s just an all-time great. You get to watch these guys and pick up a few things. It was a good learning curve for me at that time and that age to take that experience into my game.

At MI Emirates now, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Muhammad Rohid and you have been a formidable trio with the ball, often sharing the spoils amongst yourselves. A word on them and how the three of you complement each other?

We are three different types of bowlers. The other two are two left-handers but different types of bowlers. Farooqi is exceptional with the new ball. He swings the ball both ways, bowls a bouncer if you’re looking for it and also has a lethal yorker with the new and old ball. Myself, whenever I get an opportunity to bowl in the powerplay, I just try and hit my lengths and get whatever help is available. I try and be aggressive and take early wickets. Rohid, well, is an exceptional talent. I watch him in practice every day and he practices as hard as he trains. I admire that about him. In the games he has played so far, he is always coming at you. Even if you hit him a few times, he’s still coming at you. That’s a really good attitude to have and I just love how he goes about his work.

Nicholas Pooran is someone you’ve played with for a long time and have seen grow into the batting legend that he is today. How do you see his growth as both a player and a leader?

If you’ve been following Pooran from the start, he was very raw and explosive. Now, he’s grown in batsmanship. He’s become mature, taken responsibility in his batting. For example, against Gulf Giants, he was seven off 21 and waited for the right moment to go big and bring the game home for us. That’s really good to see how he’s matured. As a leader he goes on instinct most times. He would get a gut feeling like, ‘okay, let’s bring Farooqi on, he’s going to open the game for us’. And it happens correctly 80 percent of the time. I don’t know how he does it but it works most times.

You are one of the rare bowlers who plays all three formats regularly in international cricket. What is the secret sauce?

For me, what I have in my favour, is that my action is very simple. My run-up is very simple and not strenuous on my body. So for me, it is not about strength, it is about taking the momentum from my action to the crease. So it is a lot easier for me to go on for longer. It is easier for me to switch between formats. It goes down to the foundation I put in into my strength and conditioning for many years. It’s now just about topping up and ensuring I recover properly after every game to be ready for the next one.

And the secret behind you hitting 145kph consistently over long spells?

I can’t tell you (laughs). I have no idea. To be fair, I don’t think I was always bowling this quick. I was reasonably quick at some point, but I don’t think I was this consistent. It could just be playing the longer format for so long, that action being repeated all the time and everything being consistent. So it just has to do with my action being consistent.