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Bhuvneshwar Kumar was sensational with the old ball against Pakistan in India’s Asia Cup campaign opener at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Bhuvneshwar took four wickets for 26 runs, the best bowling figures by an Indian bowler against Pakistan in T20Is. The Indian bowling spearhead broke Hardik Pandya’s record of 3/8 created in Asia Cup 2016.
Bhuvneshwar’s 4/26 is the second-best bowling figures by a bowler in the T20I contest between India and Pakistan. For Pakistan, Mohammed Asif, Umar Gul have taken four-fers. Asif is on the top with bowling figures of 4/18 in the first-ever T20I encounter between the two teams in inaugural T20 World Cup 2007.
With the new ball, Bhuvneshwar took the wicket of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam. The 32-year-old surprised Babar with a bouncer. With the opener’s wicket, Bhuvneshwar equalled Ashish Nehra’s 2016 record. Bhuvneshwar has 13 T20I wickets in powerplay this year, the same as Nehra got in 2016.
With the old ball, he got the wicket of dangerous Asif Ali in the 17th over. In the penultimate over, he got the wicket of Shadab Khan and Naseem Shah off consecutive deliveries. Shahnawaz Dahani blocked out the hat-trick delivery and then hit a six off the next one. His last ball of the over went for a couple of runs. If not for Dahani’s cameo, he had a chance to equal Asif’s record.
Bhuvneshwar’s four-fer against Pakistan helped India restrict Pakistan to 147. Babar’s side got all out in 19.5 overs.
This was Bhuvneshwar’s fourth four-wicket haul in the format, the most by an Indian pacer. He has equalled Australia's Josh Hazlewood and Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman on the list. Gul is on the top of the list of pacers with six four-wicket hauls in T20Is.
In 2022, Bhuvneshwar has picked up 24 wickets from 18 T20Is at an average of 15.91 including two four-fers. Also, he has maintained an economy rate of 6.82 runs per over. With enough T20I cricket left in the calendar year, he can get past Jasprit Bumrah’s record of 28 wickets in year 2016.
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