Bhuvneshwar Kumar earns praises from South Africa opener Reeza Hendricks

Since the past one year, Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has molded himself into a match-winning bowler. The 28-year-old has been garnering praises from several quarters, and this time it is from South African opener Reeza Hendricks. Hendricks, who scored 70 off 50 balls in South Africa’s 204 run chase in the first T20 in a losing cause heaped rich praises on Kumar, explaining how he consistently hit the balls in the right area, thereby troubling the batsmen and maintaining an exceptional economy.

Kumar picked his maiden five-wicket haul (5-24) as India nailed the first T20I by 28 runs after the hosts were restricted to 175 for 9 in 20 overs. Although Hendricks put up an 81-run partnership with Ferhaan Behardien, it was not enough to save the game. Praising the brilliant show put up by the Indian bowlers, especially Kumar, Hendricks told PTI,

“He (Bhuvneshwar) was just consistent in his areas which was pretty much giving us nothing to score off. So we had to be happy with ones and twos at that time. They just executed their plans well and kept it very simple. That’s pretty much it compared to what we did.” “Conditions were very good for batting. But Indians bowled really well. I managed to bat well but would have loved to see the team home,” he added.

The emergence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar

For two successive years, Kumar, who is no mug with the bat either, won the Purple Cap in the Indian Premier League for maximum wickets (23 wickets in 2016 and 26 wickets in 2017) The tournament provided a lot of exposure to the medium-paced Uttar Pradesh bowler, who has only grown in his talent thereafter. Today, he is a regular in the team in all three formats, something that was predictable from the kind of international debut he had had.

In his first international over, he clean bowled Nasir Jamshed. Not just that, with his first ODI delivery, he clean bowled Mohammad Hafeez. And not to forget, in his first Test series against Sri Lanka last year, he forged a brilliant partnership with MS Dhoni, helping India whitewash the hosts.