Bhuvneshwar Kumar – a moment of calmness amidst the Kohli storm

When Rohit Sharma tossed the ball to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the last over of the 3rd T20I against South Africa, the match was hanging in the balance. It shouldn’t have been but a certain Christiaan Jonker decided to go bonkers at the Indian bowling. Shardul Thakur looked flummoxed. Jasprit Bumrah, uneasy. Bhuvi walked to his bowling mark with an eerie sense of calm. Turning on his mark, he had 18 runs in the bank. The match wasn’t over by any stretch of the imagination but the Indian fans weren’t too tensed. They weren’t because Bhuvneshwar Kumar glided in towards the batsman with a ‘chill bro, I’ve got this’ vibe. And he did deliver, first the knuckleball, then the victory.

“It’s all about how you prepare yourself before every series” – said the unassuming Kumar. And prepare he did to stage a powerful comeback to fit into Virat Kohli’s first XI jigsaw.

He arrived on the international scene as a shy, skinny swing bowler who could make the ball talk in the air. Mohammad Hafeez found out, immediately, the first ball. Sri Lanka suffered too. Then was England’s turn. On lush wickets, Bhuvi was the quintessential English conditions bowler – military medium, a great wrist position, and a proud seam. While the entire team struggled, Bhuvi’s performances stood out – first with the ball, then with the willow in hand. The experts waxed lyrical about his abilities, Bhuvi hardly spoke. India finally had a swinging threat for the opposition but he hardly celebrated. A twinkle in the eye, a small leap and a conservative ‘punch in the air’ is all you got. He was the most likable swing bowler of the world.

The barren tracks though didn’t like him. The death overs in the limited overs game weren’t kind either. Is Bhuvi not effective without the swing? Is he too slow through the air? Can he hit the deck hard? Suspicions rose its ugly head. MS Dhoni opted out of the Adelaide Test. Virat Kohli opted for pace because Kohli doesn’t do ‘like’. He’s into ‘menace’. Dhoni returned at MCG but Bhuvi didn’t. Dhoni retired after the ‘G’. At Sydney, Bhuvi’s figures: 0/122 in the first innings, 1/46 in the second. “We need more pace” – was the new world order. 140K plus was the yardstick. Umesh Yadav was the choice. Bhuvi never played a Test match for India in the next 18 months.

The comeback is always the biggest challenge for any sportsman especially if it’s after a string of failures. New skills are demanded, past performances are forgotten and the confidence takes a major hit. Bhuvi went out of the team and went straight into the nets. He understood his limitations and started expanding his arsenal.

Then came IPL 2016. The swing was lethal. The yorker, perfect. The bouncer, impactful. And it all happened at 140K. Bhuvi had changed. Still wiry, still likable but the shyness has been channelised into steely calmness. The scruffy stubble was the proof of a hardened pro. The eyes didn’t twinkle anymore, they shone brightly with purpose. He took the Indian captain on and bowled Sunrisers to the title. That wasn’t enough. He repeated all that in 2017. The purple cap was his, again.

Bhuvneswar Kumar was adjudged the Man of the Series in the T20Is against South Africa. For most, he was the man of the entire tour. Virat Kohli scored a ton of runs but an Indian bowler ripping through batting lineups on foreign soil? That’s been a rarity. Bhuvi took six, India almost won the first Test. Kohli left him out in the second Test. The nation went – “why?” Didn’t matter. He returned in the third, India won.

Then again, Bhuvneshwar Kumar isn’t a Virat Kohli player at all. He doesn’t fit the template at all – too quiet, hardly talks and doesn’t have a cultured beard. He’s the complete anti-thesis of Kohli because he’s the guy with “a normal haircut, no tattoos, no big cars, no big watches…” Yet, he’s the most important player for Virat Kohli’s Team India. He is because he’s the calm amidst Kohli’s storm, a peaceful pause in his hard metal orchestra, a moment of silence in his chest-thumping bravado. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the most dominant cog in Kohli’s machinery because Team India draws its power from the cradle of his calmness.