CHENNAI: It's relatively simple to describe Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling when he is at his best. It’s just like his action smooth, concise, with very little complications. There’s swing early on, wickets in the powerplay, the occasional knuckle ball and a sharp bouncer mixed in. At the death, it's short-of-length slower balls and wide yorkers.
If Jasprit Bumrah was doing things very few could at one end, Bhuvneshwar had been holding court at the other, with wickets while being economical. Thursday in Dubai was one such day against Hong Kong. While the other two pacers went for over 11 runs per over, the 32-year-old finished his three overs for just 1/15.
Now, it’s not a new trend that he's remained economical while other pacers go for runs. It’s happened often in high-scoring games through the course of his career — whether it's the IPL game where Chris Gayle scored 175 early in his career or as late as the T20I against New Zealand in Jaipur last year.
But like every other fast bowler, he has had his share of struggles. Between 2019 and 2021, he seemed like a shadow of himself. He had slowed down, the new ball seldom swung, the economy was going up. But most importantly, his USP the powerplay breakthroughs was not there. In this period, he took just nine wickets in 23 T20s with the new ball. And, with Deepak Chahar breaking in and doing what he was doing, it seemed like Bhuvneshwar might not be India’s first-choice new-ball T20I bowler.
However, in the last six months, he has turned it around. It started in the 2022 IPL. With every game, a fitter Bhuvneshwar was picking up pace and swing. The accuracy was never an issue but without the other two, it wasn't making much of a difference. By the end of the IPL, it seemed like he was ready.
In the home series against South Africa, he was swinging the ball and taking wickets in the powerplay while not going for much. In the 15 games since, he has taken 20 wickets at an economy of 6.48. Almost a year after going wicketless against Pakistan at the T20 World Cup, he picked up four against the same opposition in the Asia Cup, helping India finish on the right side of the result. And it seems like he isn’t looking back. There’s another T20 World Cup coming and he has a competitor in Chahar as well. But Bhuvneshwar, at the moment, seems to be in the zone which is simple, straightforward and effective just like his bowling.