I'm Not Prioritising White-Ball Over Red-Ball - Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Senior India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar underlined that it is his injuries and workload management which have kept him away from Test cricket, and the pacer is in no way prioritising limited-overs cricket from Test cricket.

Questions were raised over Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s commitment to the longest format after he was surprisingly omitted from the tour of England, but selected for the limited-overs tour to Sri Lanka as a vice-captain.

However, it has to be noted that he hasn’t played Test cricket for more than three years due to a series of injuries, and with the World Cup later in the year, the move to not subject him to the rigors of Test cricket is justified.

Nonetheless, the 31-year-old asserted that he is preparing his body to play all three formats, and will gleefully accept a Test recall.

“To be honest, I’m not prioritising white-ball over red-ball. If I am selected for red-ball cricket, I’ll definitely contribute. I’m not looking to prioritise one of the two. I’m just working normally, trying to prepare in a way that I’m ready for all formats. If I get a chance, I’d like to do well. I’m not looking ahead to what will happen in 18-20 months,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar said from Sri Lanka in a virutal press conference.

“I haven’t made too many changes to my bowling or the way I train. It’s just about how I manage my workload. If I’ve played a particular game, I look at how I can recover quickly from there. In terms of cricket, the only thing I’ve worked on is how to get over my injuries,” he added.

Being a senior player, talking to youngsters is not rocket science: Bhuvneshwar Kumar

As a senior bowler on the Sri Lanka tour, it would be Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s duty to guide the younger and inexperienced pacers. The likes of Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, and Chetan Sakariya will support Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the pace bowling department.

However, he stated that the younger players are talented and have the experience of the IPL which will help them shift to international cricket smoothly.

“These are talented youngsters, who’ve done well for their respective IPL teams. I don’t think they need much guidance. I talk to them if they need something. We never try to complicate things. We have Rahul Dravid [head coach] with us here and he’s guiding them well. Being a senior player, talking to them is not rocket science. We talk to them if we feel there’s an anything we can contribute,” he further added.

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