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India’s death bowling concerns have eased a bit after the arrival of their star bowler Jasprit Bumrah from an injury hiatus.
However, the quest to solve these woes continues to loom large for the team's management. With ace pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar struggling to deliver in the death overs, team India continues to find a suitable replacement aside from Bumrah.
Kumar has had a torrid time with the ball since the 2022 Asia Cup where he was especially expensive in the 19th over. The pacer conceded 18 and 19 runs in the penultimate over against Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively, leading to India's early ouster from the Asia Cup.
These struggles lingered on with Bhuvi during the recently-concluded T20I series where he leaked runs at a high rate. Though the Indian team won the series 2-1, the experienced all eyes are on the experienced Bhuvi, who showed no signs of a comeback as his poor run with the ball reared its head again. But one former World Cup winner Sreesanth has come in to support for Bhuvneshwar.
“He has done up good batsmen. Even if you bowl good balls, there are 60-70% chances of being hit. Sometimes, it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. We have to support Bhuvneshwar Kumar, just like (we have to support) Dinesh Karthik when it comes to batting. I’m very confident about his experience and ability to swing the ball; he has a back-of-the-length slower ball, and he has got the knuckleball.
"If he varies his pace on the hard bouncy wickets, he will get good help on Australian pitches,” Sreesanth told hindustantimes.com on the sidelines of the Delhi leg of ‘Legends League Cricket," said Sreesanth.
The 32-year-old was blown away for a whopping 21 run over in the 18th over of the final T20I against Australia in Hyderabad. The star Indian pacer went for 91 runs in the two matches that he played with little success as he claimed one wicket out of the eight overs that he bowled.
The twin-World Cup winner also shared some crucial advice for Bhuvneshwar.
“If Bhuvneshwar Kumar is listening to this – most often they don’t do it – but my only request is to never ever stop believing in your abilities. Sometimes, you really stop believing in your abilities. Sometimes, you get confused. Sometimes, you read a lot, and watch a lot of videos. Sometimes, you listen to a lot of opinions on the commentary. Even I have done that; everyone goes through that phase.
But you got to believe in the immense ability that has got you here and made you the king. You got to believe in the higher power and trust your work ethics,” the former bowler added.
