BHUVI 2.0- From a talented bowler to an evolved bowler

"I love playing with him and I always wanted to play with him on a big stage. Today my wish was fulfilled. He is my idol and I have learnt a lot from him. Every time I play with him, I learn something and today was no different,"

I will give you five chances to guess who bhuvneshwar kumar’s cricketing idol is?

I can even give you a hint; he is a indian swing bowler.

No?

Praveen Kumar. Yes that’s his role model. I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that in a thousand years.

Why p.kumar you think. Well both play for the same club in meerut for a start. Also having the same surname helps. Just kidding.

Bhuvneshwar kumar’s first rose to fame for being the first bowler to dismiss sachin tendulkar for a duck in ranji trophy. I am not sure if he is still the only one with that record.

When bhuvneshawer kumar first came to the international scene one had a familiar feeling about him.

 A genuine swing bowler with a middling pace.

 Rp singh, irfan pathan and Praveen kumar came in strongly before losing steam due to loss of form, injury and mercurial temperament (respectively to a certain extent).

What a debut bhuvneshwar kumar had- he picked up a wicket with the first ball of his international career.

In that marathon innings where chris gayle scored 175 and RCB 250+ bhuvneshwar playing for pune that time went for only 26 runs in his four overs.

Evolved Bhuvi

Every match, every series he played he was doing a decent if not spectacular job.

He was slowly rising and improving till the inevitable happened-he got injured. Many feared that he would become a part of the group of bowler who came onto the big stage, showed promise and faded into oblivion.

The fear was turning to reality when we saw him being prematurely grafted into the playing 11 in the last test of the recent series against Australia.

It was painful to see him bowl at 115 kmph, 10-15 kmph lower than usual.

Even more painful to see him being carted around by Ryan Harris.

Before coming into the tour he was clearly a rising hero. He won the man of the series in England for gritty batting and street smart bowling. However there were concerns.

He was a surgeon with a new ball. Give the pitch a little spice and he will work you over. However he couldn’t bowl well in dry conditions. He couldn’t bowl consistently in the middle periods. His pace was fodder for big, strong batsmen with big, strong bats, especially in the death overs. He lacked variations.

Coming to Australia it was felt that he would suffer the most due to lack of lateral swing prevalent there, his main strength.

Injury has not deterred him. On the contrary he has come back stronger and has become more versatile and adaptive, at least in the limited overs format as was evident from the IPL.

It is worth noting Ravi Shastri’s favourite comment about Bhuvi.

“he is a steady bowler who plays within his limitations”

Well, I guess he has just removed those limitations.

He has increased his pace, can bowl yorkers at will and has a good bouncer to keep the batsmen honest. This just increases the threat of his swinging deliveries.

The Yorker. All of us talk about bowling it but almost nobody actually bowls it.

Almost.(ahem-malinga and starc)

 It is not present in the Indian book of bowling. Mohammed Shami is one bowler in recent times who is able to bowl the yorker.

However Bhuvi has made that art as a hobby bowling them at will as was evident in the IPL.

It is almost as if he says, “You big, strong batsmen with your big strong bats do whatever you want. I am going to bowl in between your big, strong legs and big, strong bats and break the middle of the middle stump.”  

And he walks his talk.

In midst of all the hype of Boult and Steyn, Bhuvi has quietly emerged as the highest wicket taker of his franchise- the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

He has become more consistent with the new ball as well giving very few bad balls.

It is telling to see his success over other ‘fast-er’  Indian bowlers like Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav who though had the odd good spell, were inconsistent and wayward.

He had even piped Ishant Sharma as the main bowler in his IPL side. 

Bhuvneshwar kumar has clearly come to this level with more hard work than talent.

We can see his dedication, his focus and his passion even though he is a comparatively restrained player.

Bowls, gets a wicket, performs the customary high-fives and then goes back to his run up.

No fuss, no muss.

For me, in the last 1 year or so all the Indian bowlers have definitely become better but it is Bhuvi who has evolved to the next level.

He may not get the pace of his Indian bowling mates but still is outperforming them.

He is that kind of a player who everyone wishes does well.

Hopefully his graph keeps going up and then one day Praveen Kumar will say,” Bhuvi is my role model.”

A bit premature but I did say hopefully.

His second stint with India awaits him.

Can he carry on his present form?

I hope so.