Pace bowling is an art in cricket, a domain in which not many players have gained mastery. It takes a lot of dedication and constant grind to climb up ranks as a fast bowler. A good pacer has to be quick and should know how to swing the ball so that he/ she can become deceptive to the batsman. One such player, who was the master of swing bowling, who even represented India for over a decade, was Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Kumar is presently 34 and is regularly playing domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh. Along with that, we also see him in the IPL and in local franchise tournaments like the UPT20 league.
Bhuvi wasn’t a very fast bowler, it’s not like he used to clock 150kmph regularly, but his forte is his swinging deliveries. He can bowl both inswingers and outswingers with equal ease. Not only that, he has a lot of variations in his kitty like reverse swing, yorkers, slower balls etc. His record as a batter is also very impressive. Time and again he has proved his efficiency as a lower order batsman. With all these credentials, he has proved why he is one of the finest cricketers representing India.
Early life and domestic cricket
Bhuvneshwar was born on 5 February, 1990 in Meerut, India. He joined cricket coaching when he was 13 and that too because his sister encouraged him to play this sport. He used to train under Mr. Sanjay Rastogi in the same vicinity as his native place.
He played domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh and at age 17, he made his first class debut as well. In the 2008-09 Ranji trophy final, he became the first bowler to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in first class cricket. That’s when everyone started recognising him as a future star of the Indian cricket team.
International career
Swing King, Bhuvneshwar Kumar made his first appearance in international cricket on 25 December, 2012 vs Pakistan in T20 format. Within a week, he made his ODI debut as well, that is, on 30 December, 2012 vs Pakistan. After that it was a matter of time, as young Kumar was the talk of the town. Everyone could see his god gifted talent to produce extra swing. On 22 February, 2013 he made his red ball debut as well, but this time against Australia.
He was in the squad that lifted the 2016 and 2018 Asia Cup. He also won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He was the first Indian bowler to take a five wicket haul in Test cricket, ODI and T20I.
He played his last test on 24 January, 2018 vs South Africa, last ODI on 21 January, 2022 vs Pakistan and last T20 on 22 November, 2022 vs New Zealand.
International stats
| Format | Test | ODI | T20I |
| Matches | 21 | 121 | 77 |
| Runs | 552 | 552 | 61 |
| Batting average | 22.08 | 14.15 | 10.16 |
| Best score | 63* | 53* | 16 |
| 100s/50s | 0/3 | 0/1 | 0/0 |
| Wickets | 63 | 141 | 84 |
| Bowling average | 26.09 | 35.11 | 23.31 |
| Best bowling figures | 6/82 | 5/42 | 5/4 |
IPL
Bhuvneshwar’s IPL journey started with Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2009 when he was picked by them because of his stellar show in first class cricket. However he didn’t feature in a single game. In 2011, he was bought by Pune Warriors India and he stayed with that franchise for 3 years. He played 31 matches for PWI grabbing 24 wickets. After that, he was picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad and since 2014, he is the core bowler in their squad as he has won many games for SRH. He has always capitalized the chances offered to him. He is the first bowler to win purple cap in two consecutive IPL seasons and that is why every opponent batsman is extra cautious while facing his deadly inswingers. So far, he has played 145 matches for Hyderabad taking 158 wickets. He is the backbone of his team.
