Bhuvneshwar Kumar Risks Facing Virat Kohli's Wrath After Contradicting Him

India fast-bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar might face the music when he meets captain Virat Kohli next time for his comments in the pre-match press-conference ahead of the first ODI against South Africa. The right-arm pacer contradicted with Virat Kohli’s ‘ODIs are not relevant this year’ comment.

After losing the ODI series to New Zealand last month, Virat Kohli had stated that ODIs are not relevant this year compared to Tests and T20Is as there is no ODI tournament this year.

“ODIs aren’t too relevant this year compared to Tests and T20s, but to find people who can play that way under pressure is a big revelation for us and a big plus,” the Indian captain had said.

However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar differed with his skipper on the significance of ODIs in a T20 World Cup year, saying that all international matches are important and another bad series will be confidence-denting. India enter the series against South Africa on the back of suffering a whitewash in ODIs and Tests against New Zealand.

“International matches are important. We just lost a series in New Zealand and you all are aware of the reactions after that. Our aim is to win the series because if we don’t do well, an individual’s confidence also gets affected,” Bhuvneshwar said on the eve of the first ODI.

The pacer, who is making a comeback after recovering from an injury, said that a good outing in the series will be a confidence-booster for players going into the upcoming IPL that starts on March 29.

“T20 is a different thing but if we do well here, we will have confidence going into the IPL which is necessary,” he said.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed the ODI series against West Indies and Australia at home, T20I series against Sri Lanka and the tour of New Zealand due to the injury. Speaking about his comeback, the 31-year-old admitted that making a comeback is not easy for fast bowlers.

“It’s difficult to maintain pace when you are returning from an injury because it always plays on the mind that if you strive for pace then the injury might reoccur. The best option is such a case is to play matches as much as possible to gain confidence that you are fit,” Bhuvneshwar said.

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