THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Colin Munro called them the best new ball bowlers in sub-continental conditions.
Rohit Sharma called them the world's best death bowlers.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and
Jasprit Bumrah have fast cemented their place in the Indian limited overs setup as the first choice seamers.
They have been instrumental in India's series wins against Sri Lanka, Australia and also showed no signs of letting up against New Zealand. In the last T20 at Rajkot, while every other bowler went for plenty, it was the measly spells of Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar that prevented the Kiwis from posting a 200-plus total. Bhuvneshwar went for just 29 in his four overs while Bumrah was even more frugal giving away only 23 in his quota of four.
The growing influence of the pair on India's white-ball cricket fortunes is down to the excellent rapport the pair shares and their understanding each other. "Bumrah has a different action which creates problems for the batsmen but he has improved a lot of things with his action. He had these yorkers and slower ones earlier as well. So when you bowl with Bumrah you have confidence that if you need to save runs later, if you bowl well, he will also do it with me," said Bhuvneshwar on the eve of the all-important third and final T20I at the Sports Hub in Thiruvananthapuram.
The 27-year-old seamer said that he communicates a lot with Bumrah and discusses ways and means to bowl on certain wickets and conditions. "The good thing is that when the match begins, we talk to each other about the wicket, what strategy we can make. It's of great help for both the bowlers," he said.
Such cordial communication was out on display when Bhuvneshwar, talked about a new addition to his armory, the knuckle-ball with Bumrah in a video made for BCCI's official website after the second ODI against New Zeland in Pune. "I developed it (the knuckle-ball) just before the IPL this year. It's useful to have this in India where the ball does not swing much and there are only two fielders in catching positions. Hence, I started developing it in the nets. But I did not know it would become so handy in T20s and ODIs," said Bhuvneshwar who bagged the man-of-the-match picking three wickets for 45 runs. Bumrah finished with 2/38 in that match.
The swinging yorker Bhuvneshwar bowled to get Munro in the first match of this series would have made the Kiwi left-hander's appreciation of the Indian seamer's skills greater. Bhuvneshwar returns the compliments when asked about his take on the present New Zealand batsmen. "Munro has troubled us but others as well. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill are good batsmen as well. We can't really pin-point one batsman when the team is playing really well. Both series have come to the decider so Munro is the dangerous batsman but the whole team is a good one," he said.
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