Naman Ojha praises Bhuvneshwar Kumar, says his game has improved

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the bowler on a mission in the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League. He not only won the purple cap but also announced himself as one of India’s finest quicks especially in the death overs. And come 2017, he looks in the same form as before if not more menacing than the previous year.

Kumar is not a regular in the national Test team yet, not until the skipper feels the pitch will assist him, but in the shortest format of the game, he is one of the best in the business. And this was once again evident in the thrilling encounter between the Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday night. This season, he has 15 wickets from the first 5 games.

Wicket-keeper batsman Naman Ojha is all praises for Bhuvi, saying he has improved his bowling from last year. He further emphasised that to continue yielding good results in competitive cricket, regular hard work is mandatory.

“I think there’s a lot of improvement in his bowling when compared to last season,” Ojha said after the match. “To keep playing at the highest level, you need to keep working hard else your career-graph comes down very quickly,” he said.

Kumar gave away only 18 runs and took 5 wickets to emerge as the player of the match against Punjab. Ojha also explained why his side could not put up a daunting total on the board, attributing it to the slowness of the wicket

“It was a slow and low wicket, the ball was gripping for the spinners. We thought 160 was going to be a good score on this wicket”, he reckoned.

Since Hyderabad have two great openers in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner, Ojha, who bats up in the other in domestic cricket, has to bat lower down the order. According to him, the change in his batting position has come in the way of his performances.

“I have to bat in the middle-order, it has certainly affected my scoring opportunities, but I will continue to do the needful for my team,” he said.