Bhuvneshwar Kumar doesn’t feel India is missing the fifth bowler in T20Is

The spearhead of the Indian bowling attack Bhuvneshwar Kumar is confident of the capability of the bowlers delivering in the final T20I. India and New Zealand are all set to lock horns in the decider on Tuesday at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. The visitors came back well in Rajkot after losing the first game and forced the decider in shortest format as well. However, Bhuvi is confident of the good show from the team and hoped that the team would win much like they did against Australia.

Colin Munro blazed past every bowler in the last game and scored a scintillating ton on a flat deck. The bowlers had no answers to his assault and looked all at sea when put under pressure. Though the duo of Bhuvi and Bumrah bowled well at the death once again and restricted the Kiwis under 200. But the damage had been done by then and the hosts faltered in the chase of a big score yet again. Eventually, they fell short by 40 runs which is a huge margin in T20s and the series was levelled at 1-1.

Bumrah troubles the batsmen

Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the questions from the reporters ahead of the decider on Tuesday and cleared that the team is not missing the fifth bowler. “You cannot blame the bowler for the loss. Other teams are there to play as well. We have played good cricket against Australia and even when we toured West Indies. The three-match series are very small and if you lose the first game and then tie it 1-1, you have to play a decider. As far as a fifth bowler is concern, we have Hardik Pandya and others bowl part-time. We haven’t missed a bowler so far. If your main bowlers do not take a wicket or go for runs, then you miss a bowler. But we think a lot about team combination,” he said.

He was all praise of Bumrah and said that bowling with him gives him the much-needed confidence. “Bumrah has a different action which creates problems for the batsmen but he has improved a lot of things with his action. He had these yorkers and slower ones earlier as well. So when you bowl with Bumrah you have confidence that if you need to save runs later, if you bowl well, he will also do it with me. Another good thing is that when the match begins, we talk to each other about the wicket, what strategy we can make. It’s of great help for both the bowlers,” the 27-year-old added.

He also hailed the Kiwi batsmen and admitted that Munro has troubled them for the entire series. “Colin Munro has troubled us but others as well. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill are good batsmen as well. We can’t really pin-point one batsman when the team is playing really well. Both series have come to the decider so Munro is the dangerous batsman but the whole team is a good one,” Bhuvi concluded.