Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball the turning point, says Bhuvneshwar Kumar on India's 2017 Champions Trophy final loss
Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar believes that Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball was the turning point in the 2017 Champions Trophy final in which India suffered a loss by a big margin, handing Pakistan the title.
Fakhar Zaman was new to the crease when Jasprit Bumrah had him caught behind by MS Dhoni. But replays showed that he had overstepped and Fakhar made India pay by scoring a brilliant hundred and setting India a target in excess of 330, something which was well within India's reach after they lost early wickets and no one except Hardik Pandya managing to show any intent in a challenging chase.
"In the 2017 Champions Trophy final, things changed after Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball. It's not like we've had a one-sided loss or we went down without a fight. We've always lost due to an unfortunate event or incident. Although, the 2017 Champions Trophy final was a one-sided loss where they outplayed us. And it's difficult to pin-point the exact reason for the loss," Bhuvneshwar Kumar said on ESPNCricinfo's show Cricketbaazi.
Losing these knockout matches masked the fact that we actually played very well : Bhuvneshwar Kumar
India last triumphed in an ICC tournament back in 2013 when they won the Champions Trophy. But since then, they have been making to the semi-finals and finals of events but have been unable to deliver the title.
While many think that it was the inability of the team to handle the pressure that has led to their downfall, Bhuvneshwar Kumar believes that the critics were not focusing on the good things and were not seeing India's domination in these competitions.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave the example of the 2019 World Cup where India finished top in the league phase but critics only spoke about the way they crashed out of the World Cup with the heartbreaking loss in the semifinal.
"The last we won was the Champions Trophy in 2013. And since then, there have been only 3-4 ICC tournaments and we have made it to the semis or the finals about 2-3 times. In 2015 World Cup we lost to Australia in the semi-final. And in 2019 World Cup, it was bad luck. An early loss of three top order batsmen cost us the game. It rarely happens that in a match after dismissing the opposition for under 250, you are get bowled out. In that entire World Cup, Rohit Sharma had scored five or six centuries, K.L. Rahul was in good form, Virat Kohli played as always and we had MS Dhoni as well in the team. But losing these knockout matches masks the fact that we actually played very well through those tournaments," Bhuvneshwar Kumar stated.