Champions Trophy 2017: Bhuvneshwar Kumar opens up on how he gained pace

“I learn 80% by watching other bowlers”

What’s the story?

Star Indian seamer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, opened up about his career, how he has matured as a player and the raw hard work which goes into being a successful cricketer. He spoke about how he felt that, though his first two years on the international circuit were great, he did not learn anything due to his lack of failures at that time.

The 27-year-old said, “The first one-to-two-year period was really easy for me. I was really enjoying it, but I didn't learn anything because I didn't see any lows. It was during the year or two after that that I learned the most about my career and myself."

He also spoke about how he improved his pace through power training, and how watching fellow bowlers in the nets improves him every day.

“You talk to seniors, you talk to coaches, but whatever I feel helps me - it could be watching any bowler in the nets, say [Mohammed] Shami, Ishant [Sharma] or Zaheer Khan, I watch what they do. Eighty percent of whatever I have learnt is by watching other fast bowlers.”

In case you didn’t know... 

Bhuvi won the purple cap in the IPL for the second time in a row this season, taking 26 wickets in 14 games. Due to his ability to swing the ball both ways, albeit at the speed of mere 130-132 kmph, he had a blistering start to his international career.

However, from 2014-15, Bhuvneshwar was in and out of the team in all formats, due to batsmen negating his swing by coming down the track and exploiting his pace. From 2016 onward, Kumar has been consistently bowling at around about 140 clicks and tearing apart batting lineups in the IPL.

He is in the squad for the 2017 Champions Trophy and is a guaranteed name in the playing XI, thanks to his impeccable performance in the IPL. He is one of the best new ball bowlers in the world and knows his way around the bat. In 59 ODI’s for India, he has taken 61 wickets. 

The heart of the matter

Praveen Kumar, a bowler with similar traits to that of Bhuvi is someone who the Sunrisers superstar looked up to in his youth, and when asked about Meerut producing swing bowlers, Bhuvneshwar credited the favourable weather conditions and the presence of many ball manufacturers in the region.

Variations are an essential component of any bowler’s game. Speaking about how long it takes for him to master it, Kumar said it generally takes 2 months, which is how long it took for him to get used to the knuckleball, which was very successful during IPL 2017.

He also spoke about death bowling, and how, while it is difficult against batsmen like MS Dhoni and AB de Villiers; it is definitely possible to stop them. He stressed the importance of being a thinking bowler and not just steaming in every single ball.

What’s next?

The Indian Sultan of Swing will look forward to the two warm-up matches on the 28th and 30th of this month, so that he can be in prime shape for the official tournament, where he will be leading India’s bowling attack. He will no doubt be Virat Kohli’s go-to bowler.

Author’s take 

The conditions in England are at favourable for him and if he can trouble the opening batsmen, he can single-handedly put the opposition on the backfoot, coming back to attack them in the death overs again.