IPL 2018: I Looked Upto Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra While Growing Up - Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Sunrisers Hyderabad fast bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the best modern-day bowlers, especially in the limited-overs format.

He has evolved as a pacer over the last few years and has become a death-overs specialist both for India and his franchise the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

During an interactive session with Harsha Bhogle, Bhuvi revealed many secrets of his bowling. From the demands of T20 cricket to how his body copes on the 4^th or the 5^th day of a Test match, Bhuvi gave quite a few insights.

Bhuvneshwar has been regularly part of all three formats of the game in the recent past. On being asked how he copes with changing from each format, Bhuvi said it is quite tough, as the three formats require a different set of strategies.

“It’s not difficult, but it takes time. In Tests, we don’t bowl the slower balls or the Yorkers apart from the oddball when you want to dismiss the tail-enders.

In the shorter format, there is a huge demand for the slower balls or the Yorkers. You have to practice it. Whenever I switch the format, I try to practice whatever has more demand in the practice sessions so that whenever I come out to play, I have done it all.”

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Comparing the IPL with other formats, Bhuvi said,

“But the IPL is easy because after playing for five days 3 hours game seem to finish really fast and that’s the best part. He was also asked that why there was a decline in Yorkers this particular IPL season.”

Replying to that query Bhuvi said it is not only but most fast bowlers who have changed their lines. The surfaces certainly have something to do with it.

“Not only mine everyone is bowling lesser Yorkers. Maybe it depends on the wickets. When the wicket is slow, you don’t go for the Yorkers because the slower balls grip on the wicket. It isn’t easy for the batsmen. I didn’t bowl too many Yorkers because I was injured earlier, so there was a niggle. When you bowl the Yorkers, you need all the power in your body.

Probably my back wasn’t allowing me to bowl the Yorkers. That was the reason I wasn’t bowling too many Yorkers. As I am making a return, I have the confidence to bowl it again.”

Harsha Bhogle further said not only him, but his India teammate and new ball bowling partner, Jasprit Bumrah has also bowled quite lesser slower deliveries.

On asked whether it has become a trend of not bowling too many Yorkers, Bhuvneshwar said it is not a trend but depends on the situation of the game and how you strategise.

“It’s not a trend. When you make a strategy whilst playing for the Indian team, it’s not that we will bowl lesser Yorkers, but we can bowl more of the length balls.”

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“For example, if you are bowling ten balls, you can bowl six yorkers and four length balls. So we try to mix it up. As you said, everyone expects Yorkers, so we try to change up.”

Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar Kumar further stated Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan were his childhood idols when it comes to Indian bowlers. However, he also looked up to Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath.

On Cricbuzz Unplugged, @SunRisers lead pacer @BhuviOfficial talks to @bhogleharsha about the decline in yorkers this #IPL2018. pic.twitter.com/wygNp4ErCU

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) May 16, 2018