Opinion: Why India should not drop Bhuvneshwar Kumar for their match against Pakistan

After India successfully survived the scare of Hong Kong in their opening match in Asia Cup 2018, all eyes were on Bhuvneshwar Kumar's rusty spell in that match. Khaleel Ahmed made an impressive debut with three wickets for 48 runs in his full quota whereas Bhuvi's spell caused the opponents to score 50 runs in his 9 over and without a wicket.

This raised the eyebrows of many and started discussing the probability of dropping Bhuvi instead of Khaleel to bring Jasprit Bumrah back for the important clash against Pakistan.

From the seven matches, he has played against Pakistan, Kumar has 11 wickets with an economy rate of 4.27 and an impressive average of 23.72 which is far better than his career average of 39.41. Even in the previous encounter at Champions Trophy final, Bhuvi was the best bowler for India where as everyone got a bad day. His spell reads as 10-2-44-1.

Bhuvi is arguably one of the best death over specialist around the world now. He, along with Bumrah delivered a lot of memorable spells at death. His ability to pitch tight lines consistently makes tougher for any batsman in the world. He won matches with his spells, which includes series winning spell against New Zealand in the series decider where India win from behind just because of the exceptional death overs from Bumrah and Bhuvi.

Over the years India has been searching for the third seamer only, bringing Khaleel in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar will collapse the settled bowling line up for the upcoming 2019 world cup. Already India's batting line up isn't still settled, it isn't advisable to experiment in the settled bowling line up too.

With Hardik Pandya also coming back, it's might not be the best decision to go with only Bumrah as an experienced seamer in the all-important clash. Hence, Khaleel will have to make a way for Bumrah even though a good previous outing.