Australia: Before the T-20 World Cup, when the Asia Cup (Asia Cup) was to be played, the only question on everyone’s face was whether Virat Kohli would be in form. After the completion of the Asia Cup, now when the counting days are left for the World Cup, the question has changed for the Indian team and for the cricket fans. Now the only question that bothers people is whether the Indian team is going to win the World Cup with this bowling attack. While Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma took the reins of the T20I team, the main issue for the Indian team was their sloppy batting. The Indian batsmen also took some time to improve in this area but managed to perform as per the team’s demands. If India are to look at the positives from the last few matches, the batting will appear to be their strongest side.
However, after coming out of one problem, the Indian team is now facing trouble in another area. In the last three T20I defeats, the Indian team has lost while defending the target. In these three matches, India had to defend 54, 42 and 41 runs in the last four overs and all the three matches slipped out of their hands. In these three matches, the Indian team batted well but bowling continues to be a problem. One thing that was common in these three matches was that Jasprit Bumrah was not present in the playing eleven and Bhuvneshwar Kumar scored 16, 14 and 19 runs in the 19th over of each match respectively. It is not as if India were making a tactical mistake by giving Bhuvneshwar the 19th over as Bhuvneshwar is the best bowler in the death overs in Bumrah’s absence.
From the beginning of 2020 till the beginning of this month, Bhuvneshwar has been the third best Indian death bowler in T20 cricket. The other two best bowlers out of the three are Arshdeep Singh and Bumrah. Bhuvneshwar has been consistently good in the last overs but in the last three matches he seems to have forgotten his bowling. Naturally, he does not have enough quality to bowl in the death overs. It does not have high speed. He has a clean bowling action. He rarely bowls above 140 kmph. His precision in planning and execution is what has kept him in the game.
Bhuvneshwar will probably openly admit that he did not bowl as planned during the first T20 against Australia in Mohali. Hitting over a fielder’s head is one thing but being repeatedly hit by Matthew Wade in the same direction where there is no fielder is another and that must have hurt Bhuvneshwar.