The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium seems to be a lucky venue for all-rounder Bhuvneshwar Kumar. At this very ground, he scored his maiden first-class century to take Central Zone into the final of the Duleep Trophy.
A few months later, the 23-year-old Uttar Pradesh all-rounder who could not take any wicket in the first Test at Chennai, bagged his maiden Test wicket that too, a big one. In his second over, Kumar was all joy when he uprooted left-hander David Warner’s leg stump.
“It has always been a dream to play Test cricket for India and when I got my first wicket, I was very happy. It couldn’t get better than this,” said Kumar at the end of the first day’s play.
Talking about the wicket of Warner, Kumar said there was something happening off the wicket in the first over. “I just bowled wicket to wicket and that came off the wicket.” The swing bowler found more success. Keeping the ball up, he trapped Ed Cowan in front, getting a favourable decision from South African umpire Marias Erasmus.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave an extended spell to Kumar and he justified his captain’s faith by capturing Shane Watson’s wicket. But a lot of planning went in Watson’s dismissal. “The wicket is slow and the odd ball is keeping low. So I just planned to bowl at the stumps. It clicked.”
For Kumar, all three wickets were satisfying as Warner, Cowan and Watson have been doing well for Australia. Kumar said spinners dominate the match in India. “If the medium pacer can take two wickets out of 10 then it’s good. In the first hour something was happening in the wicket. I tried to bowl wicket to wicket. It worked,” said a delighted UP bowler.
Kumar, however said there was no specific assistance in one particular end. But he thought Ishant Sharma was trifle unlucky not to take any wicket. “He bowled well.”