What has gone wrong with Bhuvneshwar Kumar?

Bhuvneshwar has been off-coloured since the tour of England in 2014

We have often seen fast bowlers in Indian cricket leaving a telling impression on their debut and having a wonderful first couple of years, but all off a sudden, they fade away quickly without having a long career for the country. Irfan Pathan had a sensational debut to his career, showing the potency to trouble the batsman, but he soon was hit by injury problems and his ability of swinging the ball at good pace gradually declined and later he became half the player he was. Munaf Patel and RP Singh also had dream starts to their careers, but soon went off the radar following injury problems.

Sadly, now, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has joined the list too. He had an incredible start to his one-day career against Pakistan, and announced himself as a promising new-ball bowler for India. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s greatest strength has been his ability to swing the ball at decent pace, and most of the batsmen at the have found it difficult to handle him at the beginning of innings. He was also more disciplined in his bowling, and thus, he set the tone for India’s bowling innings.

Considering his ability to swing the ball at decent pace, he was picked for the Champions Trophy in England in 2013. Bhuvi lived up to the expectations in the tournament, as he constantly troubled the opponents with his swing and didn’t offer too much room for the batsman to free their arms. He invariably picked up crucial wickets at the start of matches in the tournament and finished with 6 wickets at a good economy rate.

He also had a wonderful Test series in England with 19 wickets in five Test matches, but soon after that tour, he went off the radar. He had an issue with his knee, and didn’t play regularly in the side. He was not part of the first three Test matches in Australia, and didn’t look convincing in the Sydney Test. When he returned for the ODI against Australia at Melbourne, he didn’t look as intimidating as he used to be with the new ball.

Now, despite having a long gap, he had a pretty average series in Bangladesh, as Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar didn’t find any difficulty in handling Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Reasons why Bhuvi has dropped off

So, what has gone wrong with Bhuvneshwar Kumar? Has he gone off the radar? Is he no more the bowler he was earlier? To answer this, we will have to look at two issues.

Obviously, he was overloaded in the Test series in England as the other two seamers weren’t troubling the opponents. He was the only one who looked like getting wickets in the English conditions, and hence, Dhoni was forced to stick with him for long spells. This has resulted in the decline of his performance following the England tour, as he lost a bit of pace. He also didn’t seem to post any threat with the new ball after the tour and had too many fitness issues leading up to the World Cup.

While he played just the one match in the World Cup, it was surprising to see Bhuvi not swinging the new ball. He concentrated more on hitting the surface hard and tried to extract some movement off the pitch. But the problem is that he doesn’t have the body to excel at doing that.

Even in the IPL, he concentrated a lot on hitting the deck harder and bowled a straighter line with the new ball and didn’t look to swing the new ball. In T20 cricket, bowling a straight line is fine, but in one-dayers you will have to get wickets at the top to turn the pressure on the opponent’s camp. However Bhuvi hasn’t been able to do that in the Bangladesh series, and the reason behind that is his lack of swing from the new ball.

Road forward for Bhuvi

It can be argued that Bhuvi is trying to adapt to the changing nature of the game, as the batsman go after the bowling at the top even in 50 overs cricket. But one has to understand that irrespective of the format, if you bowl to your strengths, you can always trouble the batsman and outplay him.

Therefore, it is imperative that Bhuvi doesn’t fall into the traps Irfan Pathan, RP Singh and Munaf Patel fell into. He should look to play to his strengths, and not try too much to adapt to each format. The basics remain same for all three formats, and hence, he should concentrate on getting wickets at the top. For that, he should start swinging the new ball, and bowl wicket-taking lines and constantly pose questions to the batsmen.

If Bhuvi can come out on top with the ball, certainly the result will also start coming in favor of India as Dhoni will have two spinners to tighten the screws in the middle overs. Bhuvi is a vital cog to India’s success.