I believe I can swing the ball better than others, says Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed an impressive haul of 3/41 in the second ODI versus Proteas

Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has lately been criticised for compromising on swing, has expressed his self-confidence to move the ball. The 25-year old feels that his increase in pace doesn’t change the fact that, he can still swing the ball better than others.

Bhuvneshwar returned to form with impressive figures of 3/41 in India's 22-run victory over South Africa in the second ODI on Wednesday. The Indore wicket, known to be a run-feast, negated Bhuvneshwar's early attempts to get the ball to move, as a result of which, he conceded quite a few runs early on. However, he remains confident about his skills.

"I believe I still swing the ball; but as a bowler you also need conditions to assist your swing bowling. If there is someone who is able to swing the ball, I believe I have it in me to swing it a bit more than the other bowlers. But I also need a bit of assistance from the conditions to swing the ball. I have not intentionally tried to gain pace in my bowling. It is something that has developed with time," Bhuvneshwar told bcci.tv.

Bhuvneshwar has had tought 2015 campaign so far, but is not letting statistics dictate his bowling aesthetics.

The Meerut-born pacer feels that he will eventually be amongst the wickets. On Wednesday, he failed to give India an early breakthrough in his first spell of three overs as South Africa chased down a relatively low total. However, when he returned for his second spell, Bhuvneshwar bowled better line and length and got the ball to bounce a little extra to account for David Miller’s first-ball scalp as the Proteas lost the plot in an otherwise straightforward chase.

Extremely confident in my ability: Kumar

"I am very confident about my bowling at the moment. As a bowler there are times when you do not get wickets and you don't have the numbers to show against your name. But never has the thought crossed my mind that I am not a confident bowler and the wickets are not coming my way. If you are confident you will end up getting wickets at the end of the day which is exactly what happened tonight. I did not get wickets at the start of the innings but we knew that if there were a few quick blows, South Africa would find it difficult to chase the total down. I was extremely confident of picking wickets when the game was well poised and heading towards a tight finish. It was all about being patient and bowling well which would get me wickets," he said.

The youngster was all praise for his skipper. Talking about Mahendra Singh Dhoni's unbeaten 92, Bhuvneshwar said, "When MS Dhoni walked into the dressing room after playing that knock, he just brought in a positive vibe with him. We as a team just believed that we could defend this total. The talk amongst ourselves was that 250 is a tricky score and we have to bowl well to win this match. We did exactly that and we will remain positive in the coming matches as well."

The series levelled, the action now shifts to Rajkot for the third ODI on October 18.