Barring the last Super 4 stage game against Afghanistan, where he bowled a spell of 4/5, veteran India fast bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a pretty ordinary Asia Cup by his standards. He conceded a humongous amount of runs in the 19th over bowled against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A week later Bhuvneshwar was hit for a hat-trick of fours by Australia’s Matthew Wade in the 19th over when India was defending 209. They couldn’t do it.
Thankfully, so far in the T20 World Cup, India has not been a situation to defend a score in death overs. But in the match against Pakistan, both Bhuvneshwar and Arshdeep were hit for sixes by Pakistan bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. When asked if the criticism about his Asia Cup death bowling had hurt him having done admirably well for India for a decade, Bhuvneshwar did give an impression that he wasn’t amused.
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As per the quotes in Hindustan Times, Bhuvneshwar Kumar said, “In all these years, I have had this one off tournament. It’s happened. It’s done and dusted. Media and commentators can say a lot of things (about death bowling), but as a team we knew that we will have our share of ups and downs. T20 is a format where it could be tough for bowlers and even for batters if the track is difficult one. But since Asia Cup is a big event people do tend to assess you that much more.”
Bhuvneshwar Kumar revealed that he keeps away from social media during big events. The Indian team had a seven-day camp in Perth and that’s why playing South Africa on Saturday, will be helping the men in blue in the crunch game.
Talking about the same, Bhuvneshwar Kumar said, “The first phase of preparation when we touched down here in Perth was the most crucial one. The strategy changes with each team as batters change. We discussed and trained on the execution of plans. If you lose a match first up in a tournament and that too against a tough team like Pakistan, it would have been difficult to make a comeback.”
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The veteran pacer further explained, “The trend in such events is that batters go hell for leather in the back 10. You might feel as a bowling unit we conceded 15 to 20 more (34 in last 3 overs) but that has been a pattern of all teams in this World Cup. If you see most matches, teams haven’t scored much in the first 10 but once the ball becomes a touch older, set batters start making runs.”
