Bhuvneshwar Kumar shows a lot can change in a year

24th October, 2021, India have only posted 151 in their clash against Pakistan – a score which doesn’t seem a lot, although the presence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah means that they still harbour hopes of victory. The former, in particular, seems a key factor in the game, especially after what Shaheen Shah Afridi has produced a couple of hours ago.

Even in the IPL that preceded the T20 World Cup, there was genuine swing on offer for pacers. Bhuvneshwar, being one of the best exponents of that particular skill, is expected to get India off to the perfect start and puncture Pakistan’s positivity bubble.

The first ball he bowls swings prodigiously. Mohammad Rizwan has a poke at it and can only edge it down to third man. Encouraged by the movement, Bhuvneshwar tries for the magic delivery, bowled a little fuller and directly challenging the stumps.

Rizwan, though, is up to the task. He has a slight shimmy across his stumps before whipping it past mid-on for four. The pacer, perhaps rattled by the stroke, bowls the next ball a little shorter. Rizwan, like he was moments ago, is waiting to latch onto it. He gets into position and pummels it over deep square leg for six.

In the space of two balls, Rizwan has landed two body blows on Bhuvneshwar and India. What seemed a surface most suitable for the seamer, has turned into somewhat of a nightmare. The Men in Blue fail to recover, as does Bhuvneshwar, and they ultimately crumble to a 10-wicket defeat.

The post-mortem, rather than looking at India’s batting deficiencies, suggests that the pacer is a spent force. He got the ball to swing a couple of times but did not do so with any sort of conviction or penetration. He is subsequently banished from India’s playing XI and ends the tournament having bowled only three overs, all of which came against Pakistan and yielded 25 runs.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad cricketer featured in the T20I series that followed against New Zealand, although the narrative by then had become about how India were sticking to someone who had run his race.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was superb against Pakistan

Cut to almost a year later. A similar backdrop in Dubai. An India-Pakistan clash that promises to define both teams’ respective campaigns. And, of course, a chance to either be garlanded for years or ridiculed for every misstep.

The pitch, much like it was in 2021, seems to be aiding the pacers. There is not as much swing on offer this time, although bowlers of Bhuvneshwar’s ilk, who use their intelligence, should have enough to work with.

The first ball he bowls is on a length. It seams away a touch and Rizwan jabs it into the off side. It is eerily resemblant of the opening delivery he bowled to that very batter last year. This time, though, Bhuvneshwar holds his nerve and does not go looking for a wicket-taking ball. The next one is bowled on a length and it nips back into Rizwan sharply. He is rapped on the back thigh pad, and when the Indians go up, the umpire raises his finger.

That decision is eventually overturned, much to the delight of the Pakistan faithful. But that entire episode hints that this version of Bhuvneshwar is much more confident in his abilities, hence, the courage to stick to his strengths and not go searching for a wicket.

Thus, it was quite fitting that his first scalp was that of Babar Azam, off a short delivery that caught the Pakistan skipper by surprise. It was not the sort of wicket you would usually associate with the Indian seamer. Yet, on the evening, it was an apt illustration of how his mind was working like a computer and how he, like he does at his best, had sussed out the conditions perfectly.

The extra belief could be down to him bowling more balls in the powerplay this year in T20Is, as opposed to 2021. A year ago, he was only bowling 11.5 balls per innings in the powerplay. In 2022, that number has gone up to 13.05. So, whenever he is coming on to bowl, there is lesser pressure to get wickets, meaning that he has been able to rely on his accuracy and control to outwit batters.

The other, and more prominent reason is that he has more confidence in his body, and has rehabilitated adequately to handle the trials and tribulations of international cricket. In the recent past, there have been accusations that Bhuvneshwar has lost his sharpness and that he needed to increase his pace to be successful. His pace quotient has not increased drastically, although the zip, which defined his early career and made him incisive, has returned.

This also makes the off-cutters and leg-cutters he bowls more dangerous, considering there is a significant difference in pace, trajectory and reaction off the pitch. And each of these traits came to the fore on Sunday as he scalped a four-wicket haul, which by the way, remains the best figures any Indian has ever produced against Pakistan in a T20I.

The cricketing elements provide a definitive explanation of how he has turned things around. What else, though, has been the cause of this change in fortunes? Well, the simple answer is time.

Time heals a lot of things, and it makes you introspect greatly. Until time has passed, you don’t realise the mistakes you have really been committing. That one examination you failed a year ago, makes a lot more sense after 12 months. You also start understanding why that one relationship you wanted so badly didn’t work out, and what it would take to not fall into the same trap again.

Time, at the cost of sounding melodramatic, changes plenty of things. And a year, from that perspective, is an enormously long phase for someone of Bhuvneshwar’s class to effect a turnaround. On Sunday, he showed that an awful lot had changed over the past year, whether it be his wicket-taking returns or the difference in the general aura he carries now, as opposed to a year earlier.

Post the game against Pakistan at the 2021 T20 World Cup, he was even labelled a spent force. Not sure there will be many making that assessment now.