From the time, he started playing for India, medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar became the blue-eyed boy of captain MS Dhoni. Starting from his attitude on the field to making the batsmen dance to his swing bowling, Bhuvi, as he is affectionately called, made early inroads to become the strike bowler of India. With his elevation to Grade A of the BCCI contract list on Monday, he promises to be the potent force the team will rely on when India take on Australia in the third Melbourne Test.
Being in a club which features some of the top cricketers like Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar has some responsibility to fulfil. Knowing-fully well about the upcoming World Cup in Australia, there is an additional responsibility for him to stay fit till the quadrilateral event.
Bhuvneshwar missed the first two matches of the Test series due to an ankle injury, which he had suffered during the warm-up games. But now that he is likely to be fit, all eyes are on the Meerut pacer – whether he could change the fortune of lagging Indian bowling attack. It’s certainly not going to be easy for someone like him to come into a side in this kind of situation, where India would have to win the remaining two Test matches of the series, and straight away deliver a winning spell that too after nursing his injury. However, his team is confident that he could deliver the goods!
Considering his reputation as a bowler, who can move the ball either ways, some kind of excitement could be on the cards. The Australian conditions could also offer some assistance to Bhuvneshwar. The team is banking on the fact that this pacer is the most consistent bowler for India over the last year. For the same reason, he is the strike bowler for his team in all formats of the game.
So far, if the Indian pace duo of Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav were consistently clocking 145 km/h pace, Bhuvneshwar’s presence could add some zip to the department. Who will be dropped to include him? Will it be Aaron or Ishant Sharma? It’s team management’s call, but from the indications, it appears that Aaron might find it tough to retain his place in the playing XI, especially, after Ishant bagged a few wickets in the second innings of the Brisbane Test.
In the lower middle-order, India would also get the additional advantage of Bhuvneshwar’s batting. Remember, he already scored some important runs for his team in the England series earlier this year, besides taking 19 wickets from seven Test innings. All put together, India would be taking the field with the best possible XI on Friday morning.
