Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be very important for India in South Africa: Simon Doull

Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull feels that Bhuvneshwar Kumar would play a crucial role for India in South Africa. Virat Kohli led Indian side will embark on a tough tour to South Africa in January next year. Currently, the team is busy playing the Test series against Sri Lanka. However, the Kiwi player believes that the other Indian fast bowlers are also brilliant but Bhuvi could be the trump card on the tour.

India is in the middle of a dream run across formats and have won every series during their grand home season. The real challenge for the team lies ahead when they are set to travel abroad for the most part of 2018. Moreover, the batsmen will face some quality bowling from the opposition in their own den and Kohli is well aware of that.

Shami is also an outstanding bowler

The cricketer turned commentator Simon Doull picked Bhuvi and Mohammad Shami as top bowlers for India in Tests, particularly. Though he felt Umesh Yadav needed to improve a little bit to match the standard of his colleagues. “I think Bhuvi is as good as others in the world at the moment. He has upped his pace, he swings and seams. He can get wickets even on good wickets. He is a line and length bowler, that’s his trade. Bhuvi will be very important in South Africa,” he said according to DNA India.

“Shami is also an outstanding bowler. They have two world-class bowlers in Bhuvi and Shami. But Yadav is a little below that standard at the moment. He needs to work on a couple things to be more consistent. In modern game, a genuine pacer now bowls at 150 kmph. He is a great exponent with old ball and when conditions don’t favour him he may be fighting for a spot maybe with Ishant or the next seamer who could be Bumrah, who knows he might go on to play a Test,” Doull added.

He also revealed that the line and length is very important while bowling with Kookaburra as its seam gets softer after the first hour. “Kookaburra is vastly different from what you have in England and India. It will swing a little more, but seam goes soft. They have to find a way to bowl line and length. The bounce helps spinners as well and my preference is always to pick your best bowlers. If they are spinners, so be it. No point picking a fourth seamer for the heck of it. When you have two quality spinners, they can do the job for you. I always favour of picking your best bowlers,” Simon concluded.