Bhuvneshwar Kumar says no batsman can play swing easily

India had one last chance to go a step closer to defending the title they hold since 2013 when they took on South Africa on Sunday. And they needed one guy to stand out and deliver a stellar performance. And Bhuvneshwar Kumar did just that. He played an instrumental role in India’s victory over the Proteas as they moved towards the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy 2017.

Bhuvi and Jasprit Bumrah shared four wickets each between them to eliminated South Africa by eight wickets. Both the pacers were outstanding during the Indian Premier League and have continued their good run in the ongoing tournament. Although it was highly expected that Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first game of the tournament, would make a big difference, it was these two who grabbed headlines.

Kumar said that their focus was on wickets this time as the ball was not swinging. “Whatever experience I had, the ball was swinging. This time it did not swing at all. So we came together to discuss what we can do. Wickets were the things we got working on,” he said in a post-match conference. “Even Virat Kohli was giving us tips on what we can do in that area.”

What actually worked for the bowlers 

Kumar relies on his ability to change the length of the delivery so that he can contain as many runs possible. He further explained that the idea of taking wickets in the first 10 overs is now not the same anymore. “The teams try to save wickets in the last ten overs and score. So we were planning to take initial wickets and continue the order which helped us restrict the team to less than 300,” said Kumar.

He also said that swing is never easy for any batsman to play, and that there hasn’t been much swing in this tournament so far.