Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said becoming the leader of the attack for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was the real turning point in his career. 

It is there, Bhuvneshwar acknowledges, that he learnt how to bowl the difficult overs in high-pressure atmosphere, which then came to good use when he turned up for his country at the highest level. 

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"I always had the ability to bowl yorkers but then I lost it. At Sunrisers Hyderabad, they wanted me to bowl at the start of the innings as well as at the end. The 14 matches I played in 2014, I learnt to handle pressure and that was a turning point," Bhuvneshwar told former India wicketkeeper batsman, Deep DasGupta, on ESPNcricinfo's 'Cricketbaazi' show.

"I learnt new things, especially handling pressure at death bowling," added Bhuvneshwar, who was key to SRH's only successful title-winning campaign in 2016.

In his quest to overcome pressure, taking cues from former skipper MS Dhoni's ways definitely helped, believes Bhuvneshwar. 

"Like MS Dhoni, I try to detach myself from the result and focus on small things, which I also refer to as process. And this helps in getting the desired outcome," he said. 

"During IPL when I had a couple of good seasons, I was in this zone. I was so focused on my process, that the result had become secondary. And the results were positive."

Before the world was brought to a rare standstill by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Bhuvneshwar was all set to end his long injury sabbatical and play the later-suspended ODI series against South Africa in March.

The 30-year-old says being confined to the four walls of his home when he should've there on the field, doing his job for India, hasn't been easy. 

"I was very motivated for the first 15 days of the lockdown. No one knew how long it would last and I didn't have any equipment to exercise at home either. We thought things would get better in a couple of months," he said. 

"But after 15 days, I started finding it difficult to motivate myself. I then ordered equipment at home and things have improved since...I am working on coming out of this lockdown as a better version of myself."

"On-field performance is different, but I can work on my fitness, or my athletic ability, or gaining more strength," Bhuvneshwar concluded.