Bhuvneshwar Kumar feels dismissing Sachin Tendulkar for a duck was turning point of his career

Playing alongside Sachin Tendulkar is a dream of almost every young cricket fan in India. But how many of them can actually boast about dismissing the Master for a duck in domestic cricket. As it turns out, only one cricketer has done that. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the bowler when Tendulkar was dismissed for a duck for the first and only time in Ranji Trophy cricket.

The incident happened during the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy final. After the match, Bhuvi got a lot of attention. People started looking at him as a different bowler with good enough skill set to deliver at the highest level. It was finally in 2012 when he got an opportunity to make his international debut. He took a wicket off his first delivery in ODIs and set the tone for a fantastic cricket career.

‘It was a big turning point’ – Bhuvneshwar Kumar

In a recent interaction, the Uttar Pradesh pacer reflected upon the wicket of Tendulkar. He also called it a ‘turning point’ in his career. He admits that was the moment after which people started to notice his bowling abilities. It should be noted that Bhuvi was only 19 years old when this happened.

“It was a big turning point, I had also picked wickets in that season before if you see that season, I had picked 30-35 wickets, but dismissing Paaji highlighted all my previous performances. Who is this guy, what has he done? People started digging my stats from the past. People realised that I could do well as I had done well in the past as well. But that wicket was the turning point as people started noticing me after that,” the pacer told ESPNCricinfo.

In another show recently, the right-arm pacer had credited Mohammad Kaif for the dismissal. He said that his captain of the Uttar Pradesh team, Kaif deserves all the credit for the wicket.

“Generally, you think to claim wickets before the start of any game, but you don’t plan to bag a certain number of wickets as it’s not possible. But when it comes to Sachin’s wicket, then I would say I was lucky because the position where Sachin got out was neither short-leg nor mid-wicket, so the credit goes to Mohammad Kaif who was my captain at that time. He set the field, and I just bowled an inswinger, and eventually, it happened,” Bhuvneshwar had said during an appearance on a web-show hosted by Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues.

Kumar has played 21 Tests, 114 ODIs, and 43 T20Is for India. However, many people believe, it was that moment when he dismissed Tendulkar, he became a popular figure.