I’m going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current performance to just match fatigue – Sanjay Manjrekar
The Indian right-arm pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was struggling with the bowl for a long time while his poor performances in the mega event turned out to be one of the reasons behind India not qualifying for the Asia Cup final.
The Indian right-arm pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was struggling with the bowl for a long time. In the death overs, he leaked so many runs, and India faced difficulties in the bowling department.
In the recent Asia Cup, he has come under pressure but he took a five-wicket haul in the super 4 game against Afghanistan. His poor performances in the mega event turned out to be one of the reasons behind India not qualifying for the Asia Cup final.
In the recently concluded T20I series against Australia, Bhuvneshwar played two matches and took one wicket. His economy was 13 RPO. Since he is a part of India’s 15-member T20 World Cup squad, Bhuvneshwar’s form is bound to increase the team management’s concerns.
Former India cricket Sanjay Manjrekar gave his take on Bhuvneshwar’s recent form.
“With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it’s never a very simple answer but you’ve got to give one of the simple answers, and one of the main reasons why Bhuvi seems to be off the boil – is playing too much cricket. In the sense, that he’s played all the matches coming into this series as well,”
Sanjay Manjrekar said on Sports 18.
“The Bhuvneshwar Kumar I have seen over the years, he’s not one of the strongest guys going around, he’s not somebody who takes a lot of workloads, he plays one format and hardly any other. He’s somebody if you notice, barring injury, if he comes later a break to play in any tournament; he’s at his best in the first few games. So, I’m going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current performance to just match fatigue. Harshal Patel has limitations as a seam bowler, but India must look as one of the third seaming options and must look at a couple of others as options and I keep stressing on Mohammed Shami as the other option.”
India will face Pakistan in the upcoming T20 World Cup on October 23, in Australia.
India Squad for T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
Standby Players: Mohammad Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir.
Standby Players: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani.