SA vs IND, 1st T20I: Bhuvneshwar Kumar Reveals The Reason Behind His Success Across Formats

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has attributed his success to not putting a lot of workload on the body while playing cross formats. The fast-bowler is one of the few individuals who are playing all the three formats regularly and he is doing exceedingly well irrespective of the format.

On Sunday (February 18), Bhuvneshwar picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in T20Is. He also became the first India to pick up five-wicket hauls in all the three formats. In a game, where the bowlers were leaking runs like anything, Bhuvneshwar looked class apart.

The 28-year old finished with 5 for 24 which eventually made the difference as India defeated South Africa by 28 run to go one nil up in the three-match series.

“It’s about managing the workload. Things have been going good so far, so touch wood two more matches to go and then we’ll see what the body’s saying,” Bhuvneshwar said on Sunday (February 18).

“It comes with fitness. It’s not easy playing all three formats, especially on a single tour. So the first thing before coming here what I wanted to do is manage workload. I wanted to practice but in a specific way, so as to not put extra workload on the body. The credit goes to the entire team because individual performances don’t matter. We stayed together and that’s what worked. For instance, we didn’t win the first two Tests but from the third Test, the momentum went our way. So it wasn’t about just one person, it’s about each and every player, and the support staff and the management to everyone.

“Sometimes you never know yourself but those watching from the outside get the idea that a player could be looking fragile and needs a break. It’s not a particular number or anything. For instance, in the last match (ODI), there was nothing, we had won the series and I was given rest and I also felt good knowing I would be fresh for the three T20s,” he added.

On a batting-friendly Wanderers track,India plundered 203 for 5 with Shikhar Dhawan leading the way with a 39-ball 72. The Indian bowlers then relied on slower deliveries to restrict the hosts to 175 for 9.

Bhuvneshwar went on to admit that the bowling slower deliveries was a part of the team’s strategy.

“Just like how you prepare your strategy before going into any game, how to bowl, what lengths to bowl, what line to stick to, let’s stick to this length, let’s bowl a bit back of length, those kind of things, the important thing is how you mix your deliveries according to the wicket,” he noted.

“For instance, today we bowled a lot of slow balls. It was a part of our strategy on this wicket, to do away with pace and make it difficult for the batsmen to score. Apart from line and length, it’s important to understand how you want to mix your deliveries. Today, for instance, it was about bowling slow,” he added.

India will now look to wrap up the series in the upcoming second T20I, scheduled to be played in Centurion on February 21.

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