Bhuvneshwar Kumar is running high on confidence in England after proving himself in T20Is ahead of T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. In the first T20I against England, Kumar took one wicket followed by a match-winning three-fer in the second T20I to help India seal the series. In both games, he started off well and got wickets in powerplay overs. Compared to Bhuvneshwar’s dry run in 2018 on England soil, he made an emphatic comeback.
What changed in the last four years for the swing king?
Swing in the arsenal for Bhuvi
Vipin Vats, Bhuvneshwar’s bowling coach back home while talking to Sports Tak said, “Last time when he went to England he was bowling around 140 kmph but he was not able to get a wicket. After this, I talked to Bhuvneshwar and said, ‘”in a country where the swing is being offered, you are busy going for speed which is not your primary weapon.” He got a wicket after this. That’s why Bhuvneshwar’s major weapon is swing and if he continues to focus on it then it will be good.”
The discussion happened during IPL 2022
While recalling his conversation with India’s veteran pacer during the IPL 2022, Vats said “I said to him before the IPL that there’s no need to take too much workload on your body because you will be playing matches in two days' gap. For this, you need to take care of your physical and mental health and also take care of your swing. He followed this and benefited from it.”
Advice to Bhuvneshwar for Australia
ICC World Cup T20 2022 will be hosted in Australia during the month of October-November. What should Bhuvneshwar be doing in the tournament? In due course of this Vats said, “Look , Australian pitches support speed whereas in England expectation is that there’s less swing but the bounce is good. In Australia, if Bhuvneshwar pulls his line and bowls just in front of the short-pitch area it will be good for him.”
32-year-old Bhuvneshwar Kumar played his last Test match against South Africa in 2018. With the ball, he accumulated four wickets and with the bat, he scored 30 runs in the first innings. In the second innings, he racked up 33 runs with the bat in the lower order. The all-round performance earned him the man of the match award.
Unfortunately, Bhuvneshwar got dropped from the Indian Test team and got injured which distanced him from red-ball cricket. After the second T20I match against India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar said he is ready for Test cricket. Sadly, on social media fans trolled Bhuvi saying his test career is already over.
Not to focus on appreciation and negativity
Speaking about Bhuvneshwar’s Test career his coach Vats said, “Look the irony here is that if good work is done, it is applauded otherwise you get trolled. I believe in not focusing on either appreciation or on negativity. On the other hand, talking about Test cricket there’s plenty of T20 cricket still left to play and I told him to focus on the present. When there’s an opportunity for Test cricket, we will look into it. That’s why one should focus on his workload and give his best.”
