Jasprit Bumrah's hunt for a Japanese pillow sparks hilarious banter with wife Sanjana

“Kaisa lag raha hai?” Axar Patel asked.

“Mast,” Jasprit Bumrah replied.

The India fast bowler had a rather unusual answer to the question of how he was spending his time in Japan. As the team prepared for the Asian Games, Bumrah found himself at a Japanese bedding studio, getting a custom pillow made, with Axar doubling up as the cameraman.

It was not quite a case of walking into a store, picking a pillow and heading out. Specialists at the bedding studio took measurements of Bumrah’s neck, back and other contours as they worked out the kind of support that would suit him. Axar captured the entire process in a light-hearted Instagram video.

Bumrah appeared to be enjoying the experience, even joking about the elaborate process.

“Special pillow for old people,” he said in the video.

The pacer also shared a glimpse of the outing on Instagram, captioning it “The art of finding the right pillow.” At one point, with Axar still behind the camera, Bumrah told his teammate: “Mere baad tu hai.”

The pillow hunt soon became more than just a teammate-to-teammate joke. Bumrah's wife and broadcaster Sanjana Ganesan spotted the post and had a question for her husband.

“You’ve gone ALL THE WAY to Japan to do THIS?” she commented, adding a laughing emoji.

Bumrah, naturally, wasn't going to let that pass.

“I won’t share the pillow when you ask for it,” he replied.

The exchange quickly became a talking point on social media, adding some humour to India's stay in Japan as the team gets ready for its Asian Games campaign.

There is, of course, plenty of cricket on the agenda too. India got their Asian Games preparations underway with a historic one-off T20I against Japan on Tuesday, but what was expected to be a straightforward outing turned into a tense finish. The rain-affected match was reduced to five overs per side, with India posting 32/4 before Japan came agonisingly close, finishing on 30/3. India won by just two runs, with Axar Patel conceding only two runs in the final over to help seal the victory.

Bumrah did not feature in that five-over game, but he and the rest of the squad are now turning their attention to the main event. India, the defending men's T20 champions, have a direct entry into the quarter-finals, with their first Asian Games match scheduled for September 28. They will face the second-placed team from Group A, which contains Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal.

For now, though, Bumrah appears to have one small matter sorted before the serious business begins: the perfect pillow.