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While he might not have as many variations as Dwayne Bravo or have the same express pace as Umran Malik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been a stalwart for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
He always slipped under the radar and has been a criminally underrated bowler, not only in the IPL but also in international cricket throughout his career.
He will not hurry batters with sheer pace or trounce them with his skiddy bowling; he mostly relies more on moving the ball both ways from the same length, along with flawlessly executing sharp yorkers.
He is among those rare bowlers who have an economy below eight (7.4 to be precise) despite featuring in 150+ IPL matches. It speaks volumes about his skills, especially in death overs, where his economy of 8.29 is on par with the likes of death overs specialists Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar likes to bowl against the Mumbai Indians (MI), against whom he has scalped 20 wickets so far at an SR of 17.70 and an outstanding economy rate of 6.54 (second lowest economy against all teams).
On this note, let's look at some of his best spells against MI across all IPL seasons.
3 best spells of Bhuvneshwar Kumar against MI in the IPL
#3. 2/17, IPL 2014, Dubai
The Sunrisers Hyderabad, on a sporting Dubai pitch that had something in it for both pacers and spinners, did pretty well in their batting efforts and put up a challenging total of 172/5 against a potent MI bowling attack comprising Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga.
Now it was up to the bowlers to stop what was a rampant batting line-up for the Mumbai Indians, and who better than Bhuvneshwar Kumar to do the job?
Kumar and Dale Steyn bowled in tandem and displayed some great swing bowling displays with the new ball.
Kumar's dead-accurate lengths were proving to be hard for the MI batsmen to get away with, forcing them to take risks on other bowlers, which resulted in them playing false shots and losing their wickets in the process.
He gave only 17 runs in his four overs in a chase of nine runs per over, picking up two crucial wickets. It was his efforts that proved to be the decisive factor in the results, as MI fell short of 15 runs.
#2. 3/26, IPL 2015, Wankhede
As a bowler, you are always in the game when you have swing and are given a spicy Wankhede pitch.
In the IPL 2015, Bhuvneshwar bowled a brilliant first two overs but didn't get any wickets to show his efforts.
That means that the MI batsmen got a launchpad to go all guns blazing and were well placed at 108/3 after the 14th over.
A total of 180+ was looking inevitable.
But then SRH bowlers pulled things back, especially Trent Boult and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bowled their hearts out in the death overs to ensure that MI did not run away with the match with the bat.
Kumar not only looked to mix his lengths but also varied his pace, using back of the hand and knuckle balls in the backend of the innings to keep batsmen guessing.
He induced a false shot from Ambati Rayudu on one such delivery when the batsman looked to launch a wide-line, slower delivery into the stands, only to hand an easy catch to the fielder at long-on.
Kireon Pollard also tried to muscle Kumar's slower, three-quarter-length delivery and saw his leg-stump cartwheeling.
Bhuvaneshwar's valiant efforts meant MI finished their innings at par with a score of 157/8, and he eventually finished his spell with figures of 3/26.
#1. 3/21, IPL 2017, Wankhede
The Sunrisers Hyderabad threw away their good start provided by their openers Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner when their middle order crumbled against Jasprit Bumrah, and the team ended up with just a par score of 158/8.
It was always going to be a catch-up game for the Orange Army, but SRH bowlers didn't give up and continued to pick up wickets at regular intervals.
The match was very well poised, with MI needing 50 runs off the last five overs with seven wickets in hand.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar then dismissed the dangerous Kieron Pollard off his knuckle ball. The batsman tried to hit it over the bowler's head but handed an easy catch to Dhawan at long-off.
He also got rid of Krunal Pandya and Nitish Rana, but a lack of support from other bowlers meant SRH could not defend their total despite the heroics of Bhuvneshwar with the ball. He finished with the figures of 3/21 in his four overs.
