Swing it like Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (FILE PHOTO)

22 years and 5 matches old, Bhuvneshwar Kumar seems to have earned his stripes already. Drafted into the Indian national team based on his impressive performances in the domestic season, he has shown in his limited appearances that he belongs in the international arena. India may have lost the series to Pakistan, but they have unearthed a genuine talent in Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

So, who is Bhuvaneshwar Kumar? Kumar is another of the young, small-town boys who have made it to the Indian team in the recent past. A resident of Meerut, he was born in the Gurjar family in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He started playing cricket at a very young age. It was his elder sister, Rekha, who spotted his penchant for bowling when he was just 13. She was the one who made him join professional coaching and helped him with all his cricketing equipment. Kumar’s coach Rastogi was impressed with his bowling right from the beginning. Bhuvneshwar had impressive outings in his debut matches at the U15 and U-17 levels.

Bhuvneshwar made his first-class debut for Uttar Pradesh at a young age of 17 against Bengal in December 2007. He picked up 3 cheap wickets as UP bundled out Bengal for 149. Uttar Pradesh won the match by an innings and 152 runs as Bhuvneshwar Kumar announced himself in the Indian domestic scene. With Praveen Kumar being drafted into the Indian team at around that time, he was slowly becoming the mainstay of the UP bowling attack. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is also known for being the first bowler to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in first-class cricket. He did so in the Ranji Trophy finals of the 2008-09 domestic season.

Bowling mostly on flat decks, he has an extremely impressive tally of 149 first-class wickets in 46 matches at an average of 26.02. His consistent performances were rewarded with a selection to the Indian-A team’s ODI tour to New Zealand in September 2012. Bhuvneshwar is also a very handy batsman and has a first-class century to his name. His knock of 128 for Central Zone against East Zone guided them to the Duleep Trophy finals this season. He also has 11 half centuries and an average of 30.29. Though he hasn’t yet got the opportunity to prove his batting abilities in the international arena, he does have the credentials to become a successful bowling all-rounder for India in the future.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a dream start to his international career as he castled Mohammed Hafeez with his first ball in international cricket, courtesy a beautiful in-swinger. He went on to pick up 2 more wickets as he finished with dream debut figures of 4-0-9-3. India lost that match but Kumar impressed all. He doesn’t have the express pace to trouble the batsmen, but compensates for it with his ability to swing the ball both ways. He also has the ability to bowl long spells and already has two 10 over spells in his short career till date. His spell in the 2^nd ODI against England, where he picked up Cook, KP and Morgan with some remarkable and consistent swing bowling, was the game changer for India. His death bowling is suspect, mainly due to his lack of pace and batsmen have found it easy to get him away. Working on some variations in his bowling will bode well for him.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar might have done enough to earn a place in the Test squad for the series against Australia. With Zaheer Khan falling out of favour with the selectors, Umesh Yadav injured more often than not and Ishant Sharma’s inconsistency, Kumar might get a chance in the starting XI. Tougher challenges lie ahead, but Bhuvneshwar looks more than just good enough to get through them unscathed.