Older, wiser and still bowling fast: How Jamie Overton turned an IPL hammering into a breakthrough season
For Jamie Overton, the turning point of this year's IPL campaign with Chennai Super Kings arrived in the most painful way possible. In his second game of the season, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the England quick bowled a two-run 16th over that began with the wicket of Devdutt Padikkal and then kept big-hitting Tim David quiet with the simplest of ploys — bowling fast and hitting his stock length. But a late change of plan backfired spectacularly. Attempting yorkers from around the wicket in the penultimate over of the innings, Overton was taken apart by David, who nailed four sixes in a 30-run over.
"I'd been doing it in practice and been doing it well," Overton recalls of the yorker tactic. "But going into the game, it's a completely different feeling and obviously bowling at one of the best death hitters in the world, if you just get it fractionally wrong, he's going to hit them out of the ground."
After the match, CSK's bowling coach Eric Simons took some of the responsibility for allowing Overton to employ the yorker tactic, but the bowler himself chose to treat the experience as a reminder of what works best for him.
Smashing his lengths to a match-winning haul
Heading into the next game against Delhi Capitals, Overton was clear about wanting to "smash my lengths" even towards the back end of the innings — something he made a point of informing his Super Kings teammate, New Zealand's Matt Henry. The result was a match-winning four-wicket haul that helped CSK to their first victory of the season, and gave Overton clarity on "the benchmark" of what he needs to do in India.
"If they hit me off the top of the stumps at 90 miles an hour, fair enough, they played a good shot," Overton says. "And if I needed to change to the yorkers, then I'd change. But I just tried to bowl four overs at the top of the stumps and make it as hard as possible, and it worked. So then I was just trying to do that for the rest of the tournament really."
Sticking predominantly to Plan A saw Overton emerge with 14 wickets from 10 matches at 17.78 apiece, striking once every 12 balls. Cameos with the bat and diving efforts in the field were followed by raucous appreciation from the CSK faithful, with comparisons even drawn to Jaime Lannister, the character of Game of Thrones fame, as Overton's popularity at the franchise grew.
It was a remarkable turnaround for a player who featured in just three matches in IPL 2025, at a time when he was still looking to nail down a spot in England's first XI. The turnarounds between 2025 and 2026 — and between that RCB match and the Delhi game — speak to his ability to put setbacks aside. "I'm very quick at forgetting games and situations. I'm not one to look too hard into situations," he says.
Quick to forget, slow to compromise on pace
Such an approach has been necessary across a career that saw Overton debut professionally for Somerset at the age of 18 and turn heads at the U19 World Cup in Australia thanks to his speeds, but only make his first England appearances after turning 28. Along the way he has endured five stress fractures, having opted never to compromise on pace — something which has differentiated him from his otherwise identical twin, Craig, who Jamie believes can "operate at 85 per cent" to manage his workload.
"I've never been inclined that way. I try and bowl as fast as I can, whenever I can, which is probably why I had more injuries than Craig," Jamie says. "But that's just part of the sport and that's why I love it. I'm always trying to give everything, whatever the situation. Injuries, it's just one of those things. You've got to keep coming back. You don't know if you're going to ever be the same. But if you can give everything you can and see where you get to, then great."
The Surrey switch that changed everything
Overton spots an inflection point in his passage from domestic grind to international honours: his decision to join Surrey at the end of the 2020 summer. The move was made in pursuit of greener pastures — opportunities to tap into his batting potential, which had been sparse at Somerset with Craig and Lewis Gregory also in the setup.
"It allowed me to have that opportunity to bat up the order and finish games. I feel like everything now is as a result of that. I'm getting [gigs in] franchise competitions around the world," Overton says.
Along with more chances to wield the long handle, there has been a gradual shift in Overton's role with the ball — from opening bowler to first change. While he has added various tools to his arsenal, including the off-cutter, the cross-seamer bouncer and a slower one, he has increasingly embraced a simple philosophy of hitting the deck at 90 miles an hour.
"I don't feel uncomfortable opening the bowling, but it just feels a bit alien now," he says. "I can do it, but it just doesn't feel as comfortable as whenever I'll come on in the sixth or seventh over and I know exactly what I'm doing. The wicket will obviously have a dictation on what you need to bowl. But my theory is, I bowl 90 miles an hour at my best and if I bowl that, a lot of batters are going to struggle to hit that out of the ground. Your best ball is always your best ball, so you try and go to that first and then you change off that."
That hasn't closed him off to developing variations, though: "I've got a few more balls up the sleeve that I've not shown anyone yet."
The red-ball gamble that paid off
If the move to Surrey set up his promotion to England honours, a second turning point came when Overton took an indefinite break from red-ball cricket in September 2025 — just months away from an Ashes tour on which England built their attack around velocity. The decision was made with a view to maximising his time on the field, and the dividends have been clear this year: a fruitful campaign in England's semifinal run at the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, a breakthrough season in the IPL, and establishing himself as a pivotal cog in both of England's white-ball setups.
"I just didn't feel like having Test cricket at that point was going to be beneficial to my career," Overton says. "I feel like I'm a bit more refreshed for whenever I play a white-ball game now. I feel like I can go into it with 100 per cent whereas at times after playing all three formats, it's hard to go into a format and be fully prepared and be ready for that game. When I was playing red-ball cricket, trying to bat and bowl and get all my loads up, it was quite tricky and probably just working my body too hard. So I feel like I've been able to train properly for what I need to do."
Body lessons and a career-best ranking
The old foe of injuries does not always stay away, however. Overton felt fine apart from some intermittent groin pain during the IPL, and was unaware he had torn his quad until scans revealed the damage, bringing his stint to an abrupt end — all while carrying a niggle in his shoulder. Time, and those five stress fractures, have hardened him to navigate injuries better, and by his own admission the quad was his body's way of telling him to take a back seat after a long run of games.
Experience has also made him wiser with the ball. Another impressive series at home against Sri Lanka earlier this month saw him rise 47 spots to a career-best sixth in the ICC Men's T20I bowling rankings.
"I feel like in my first 10 years, I probably bowled a fraction short in general," he reflects. "And I'm now just trying to bring batters forward to get them playing off the front foot a bit more — and obviously trusting my body a bit more. I've had a few action remodels. But my action is just starting to learn my body and the body is just learning the action. I feel in a good spot. It's just playing games continuously and understanding what I need to do in games that's helped me be where I am now."
Life at a gentler pace off the field
Emphasis is also placed on downtime. Back home, conversations with Craig are often restricted to the bats they use when they're not playing — a contrast to the fiercely competitive environment the twins grew up in. As for how he switches off: "On a day off, I'm either on the golf course or I'm with some horses generally," Jamie says.
Older, wiser, and — after a lesson learned the hard way in Bengaluru — still bowling fast at the top of the stumps, Overton has never been in a better place.