Former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has explained the reason behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar's ongoing struggles with the ball in the recent T20I series against Australia at home.
He said that Bhuvneshwar has been playing a lot of cricket continuously in recent times and that’s the main reason behind a dip in the senior seamer’s form.
The former batter also mentioned that Bhuvneshwar is not one of the strongest guys going around, and performs best only in the starting matches of the tournament.
His performance in the death overs became a major issue for Team India, but a break during the upcoming limited-overs series against South Africa could really help the pacer to regain his form ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Sanjay Manjrekar said on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show SPORTS OVER THE TOP: “With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it’s never a very simple answer but you’ve got to give one of the simple answers, and one of the main reasons why Bhuvi seems to be off the boil - is playing too much cricket. In the sense, that he’s played all the matches coming into this series as well.”
The commentator continued, “The Bhuvneshwar Kumar I have seen over the years, he’s not one of the strongest guys going around, he’s not somebody who takes a lot of workloads, he plays one format and hardly any other. He’s somebody if you notice, barring injury, if he comes later a break to play in any tournament; he’s at his best in the first few games.”
Manjrekar also suggested that India must look for third seamer options as Harshal Patel has his limitations as a seam bowler and Bhuvneshwar’s current form is not good.
He signed off by saying, “So, I’m going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current performance to just match fatigue. Harshal Patel has limitations as a seam bowler, but India must look as one of the third seamer options and must look at a couple of others as options and I keep stressing on Mohammed Shami as the other option.”
