Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The King of Swing Who Lost His Way:-
Look at that big in- swinger What happened to Bhuvneshwar Kumar The bowler who was once the king of swing, who used to deceive batsmen with his skill, where is he now Where other bowlers used to get beaten, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s economy was the lowest Keeping an economy of less than three on ODI and T20 debut, taking a fifer at Lord’s And becoming the only bowler to hold the Purple Cap in two consecutive IPL seasons But after this Bhuvneshwar Kumar was not the same Bhuvneshwar Kumar as before In 2012-13
his seam position used to be like this But by 2016-17 it became like this And from here started the problem which got him out of the Indian team.
The Seam Position Change: The Beginning of the Downfall:-
So now your question would be why did the seam position change, the answer to this was because he had increased his pace But then the question would be why did he need to increase his pace, so for this we have to go to the 2014 India Tour of England Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the highest wicket taker from India The performance of the Indian team was not that good But In the only match that we won, Bhuvi Bhai took six wickets. Till here everything was fine. It seemed that India had found a pacer who was not only dominating the Indian pitches but also troubling the batsmen in foreign countries with his swing bowling. Now look at this seam position, the ball used to swing a lot from this seam position, which was Bhuvi Bhai’s strength.
The Need for Pace: Pressure from the Indian Team’s Strategy:-
Till 2014, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s focus was on swing and this is what gave him success on the England tour, but when a bowler flicks the ball with so much effort to make it swing, the pace gets compromised and everyone knows that Bhuvi Bhai’s pace used to be in the mid-120s. So where there are less swinging conditions and the pitch is less green, bowling with this pace can spoil a bowler’s average and this is what happened in the 2015 India tour of Australia.
The Increased Pace and the Resulting Injuries:-
Bhuvi Bhai played only one match and he had to go for 168 runs in that. Brothers, please note that it was the fourth Test match where Virat Bhai, Virat had become the full time captain and under Ravi Shastri, in 2017-18, the pace attack of the Indian team looked something like this – Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jaspreet Bumrah, Ishan Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
2017-2018: The Peak and the Injury Setback:-
So everyone knew what kind of pace attack Virat Bhai wanted – such that the batsman should be afraid of those bowlers and if the conditions are not in favor of the pacers, then their pace should trouble the batsman. So when Virat Bhai became the full time test captain, he had made it clear that he wanted fast bowlers. See this report of July 2015, the selectors were also agreeing with that.
The 2019 World Cup and Further Setbacks:-
By then, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had also been in international cricket for two-three years and he also knew the importance of pace and the way the team’s requirement was, Bhuvi Bhai also felt that he has to increase the pace in his bowling. Then he worked on his strength building. So now see, from the seam position, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was getting so much swing and the strength that he had Now, in the process of increasing the pace, he compromised because to bowl fast, a bowler has to apply force and the flick of the wrist which makes the ball swing, got relatively reduced. As a result, Bhuvneshwar Kumar became an ordinary bowler who bowls at 130. His performance was also ordinary for a few months after that, so that year Bhuvneshwar Kumar had to face criticism that he compromised on his swing for pace, but see, change happens gradually, when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was working on his strength, after a while he started seeing results. He saw results against South Africa.
The Comeback Attempt and the 2021 IPL Struggles:-
After the same match, that is, in an interview of October 2015, Bhuvi bhai was saying that I make the ball swing more than other bowlers. In April 2016, Bhuvneshwar Kumar again said that I wanted to play Test cricket, that’s why I increased my pace, so now Bhuvneshwar Kumar had pace as well as swing and his accuracy, so in 2016 and 2017 I He was the Purple Cap holder in both the IPL seasons.
Till now, he is the only player to do so in the IPL history. Now when Bhuvneshwar Kumar had more pace than before, he was also able to bowl yorkers in the death overs. So, now he had become a good death bowler as well. In 2017, when he was getting success, he said this again that I will never compromise on swing for pace and in the 2017 Champions Trophy, he was the highest wicket taker from India.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar had become one of the best bowlers of India at that time. From taking wickets in the power play to bowling yorkers in the death overs, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the best. In September 2017, he said, I know how to swing, now I also have space, but we know that to increase the pace, a bowler has to apply force and this force started his injury.
On 22 April 2018, after the league match against CSK, he got a back injury. For precaution, he was taken to the hospital. He was asked to rest and did not play the next three matches. After returning from injury, Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed his master class, but was he fully recovered?
A New Beginning: Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s Domestic Success:-
In August 2018, Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to the field after becoming fully fit. By performing for India A, he got his name written in the Asia Cup 2018 team. Next year was the ODI World Cup and the Indian team’s pace attack was the best at that time, but was Bhuvneshwar Kumar in his rhythm in January 2019? Bhuvneshwar Bhai said in an interview that when you are in eagle, you can’t be 100%.
After the injury in 2018, played fewer international matches, so now I am slowly gaining my rhythm. The 2019 World Cup started and after just three matches, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got injured again. He was out of the team for the next three matches. This was the white ball format, but now Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s name was not even there in the Test cricket squad.
What was the reason for this? Injury was one reason, and a big reason was that there were better bowlers than him in the team and coach Ravi Shastri had clearly said that Bhuvneshwar Kumar will now only play the white ball format, the injury was not allowing him to play even the white ball format.
The injury against West Indies in December 2019. Missing one match in IPL 2020 due to injury, first and then the entire IPL, but brothers, we all know Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a fighter. He made a comeback in March 2021. In the 2021 IPL season, the 2021 season was the worst for him, only six wickets in 11 matches and people started saying that his career is over.
The difference is that after a batsman’s bad form, people say that yes form is temporary but class is permanent, but after a fast bowler’s bad form and injury, people start saying that now his career is over. This thing got further confirmation when the 2021 T20 World Cup was also bad and in January 2022, he did not get a single wicket in the ODI series of the South Africa tour.
Proving the Critics Wrong: A Hat-trick and a Resurgence:-
At this time, fast bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini had come in the Indian team and all the doors of the Indian team were closed for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but people had forgotten that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the best bowler of IL, the best bowler from India to play in IL, so now he had only one hope to come back in the Indian team, 2022.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a good performance in 2022 and the captain of that time Rohit Sharma also backed him. Now the 2022 T-20 World Cup was ahead. Let me remind you that we lost the 2021 T-20 World Cup badly, so in this tournament, the careers of many players were at stake, one of them was our Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Look at the stats of Bhuvi Bhai in the entire tournament, the economy was very good, there were less wickets in the wicket column at 6.16, on top of that India lost in the semi-finals. In today’s T-20 era, a team will accept an economy of 6.16 any day, but if the team is winning, but the Indian team was in a bad phase at that time and that was almost the end of Bhuvneshwar Kumar on 22 November 2022 in New Zealand The last time we saw Bhuvi bhai playing for India against, the problem started with the change of seam position. When Bhavi bhai increased the pace of his bowling, in that process, his biggest strength, his swing, got lost somewhere and the extra pace took a toll on his body and then there were injuries, but brothers, do you remember that in IPL 2020, he got injured for just one match, later he was out of the entire IPL, so in September 2020, his father was detected with liver cancer and he came back to India for his father’s treatment, the treatment continued and in the first leg of IPL 2021, he kept playing under tension about his father’s health and this was also visible in his bowling, look at his economy, 11.25 on 20 May 2021, he lost his father, so brothers, a bowler is also a human being, no matter how much you say that professional and personal life should not be mixed, but it is easy to say, not to do, even if it may seem that the door to the Indian team is closing It is closed for Bhuvneshwar Bhai, but the fun in breaking that door is next level.