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India speedster Bhuvneshwar Kumar's form has been of great concern both for the fans and the team management led by captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid. However, the Meerut-born pacer has been finding a lot of support among former cricketers with many of them throwing their weight behind him and the latest to join the bandwagon is the two-time World Cup winner Sreesanth.
According to Sreesanth, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will not only find a spot for himself in the playing XI but will play a key role for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.
While Bhuvneshwar Kumar has done exceedingly well with the new ball, causing havoc among frontline batters of opposition sides, it is his death bowling that has been worrisome. In the matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup and then again in the first game of the three-match T20I series against Australia at home, Bhuvneshwar was taken to the cleaners and was the main man responsible for India's defeats in all these matches.
Even the legendary Sunil Gavaskar had called him India's problematic area recently because leaking runs at the death could turn out to be suicidal for any team in a competition like the T20 World Cup, especially when you are expected to chase down big targets at placid tracks in Australia.
Article Continues Below“When somebody like a Bhuvneshwar Kumar is going for so many runs every single time, when he is expected in 18 deliveries in 3 matches that India have lost against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia, he has given away 49 runs which is almost like 3 runs per ball. Someone of his experience and his calibre, you expect maybe he would give 35-36 runs. That really is an area of concern,” Sunil Gavaskar told India Today.
But Sreesanth and former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckon that nothing was wrong with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and he was just fatigued out because he has played too much cricket of late.
“He has done up good batsmen. Even if you bowl good balls, there are 60-70% chances of being hit. Sometimes, it works out and sometimes it doesn't. We have to support Bhuvneshwar Kumar, just like (we have to support) Dinesh Karthik when it comes to batting. I’m very confident about his experience and ability to swing the ball; he has a back-of-the-length slower ball, he has got the knuckle ball. If he varies his pace on the hard bouncy wickets, he will get good help on Australian pitches,” Sreesanth told hindustantimes.com.
“If Bhuvneshwar Kumar is listening to this – most often they don't do it – but my only request is to never ever stop believing in your abilities. Sometimes, you really stop believing in your abilities. Sometimes, you get confused. Sometimes, you read a lot, and watch a lot of videos. Sometimes, you listen to a lot of opinions on the commentary. Even I have done that; everyone goes through that phase. But you got to believe in the immense ability that has got you here and made you the king. You got to believe in the higher power and trust your work ethics,” Sreesanth added.
“Bhuvneshwar's work ethics are superb. When he was at the Vijay Hazare, he was at the gym, he was at the pool. He wanted to do more and more. It’s great to see that even now, he works hard. See, everyone is talking about the 19th over, but I'm telling you, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is going to do extremely well in Australia,” Sreesanth elaborated.
“With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it's never a very simple answer but you’ve got to give one of the simple answers and one of the main reasons why Bhuvi seems to be off the boil – is playing too much cricket. In the sense, that he’s played all the matches coming into this series as well,” Sanjay Manjrekar told SPORTS18.
“So, I'm going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar's current performance to just match fatigue. Harshal Patel has limitations as a seam bowler, but India must look as one of the third seamer options and must look at a couple of others as options and I keep stressing on Mohammed Shami as the other option,” Sanjay Manjrekar added.
Meanwhile, former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria had a different view on Bhuvneshwar's situation as he claimed that the India fast bowler was struggling with both the new and the old ball.
“You won't improve unless you are willing to take criticism. While he has been an amazing fast bowler and has done really well, he is not at his best right now. He is struggling with the new ball and it's the same case towards the backend as well. He is not trying to do anything different and has proved to be expensive consistently,” Danish Kaneria said on his YouTube channel.
“This was Jasprit Bumrah's first full 20-over match since returning from injury. He conceded a lot of runs. But we must note that Australia played with a lot of intent, despite losing wickets at regular intervals. He hasn't found his rhythm, but he will be fine,” Danish Kaneria concluded.
