'Didn't know how to do it' - Bhuvneshwar Kumar on a missing aspect in bowling during early days

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the most consistent bowlers for team India across all the formats. He is known predominantly for swing and deceptive slower balls, which often flummoxes the batters. If the pitch has a tinge of grass cover and is aiding swing then Kumar is a handful on such conditions and gives India the early breakthroughs.

The 30-year-old is also very economical with the ball, often bowling the tight overs and creating pressure on the batter’s mind. In the past five years, he has ably led the pace attack along with Jasprit Bumrah in the white-ball formats and is India’s go-to bowler.

Of late, injuries have kept him out of the team for long periods of time, but there’s no doubting his class when, fit as was evidenced during India and England series in March earlier this year.

Kumar shares his thoughts on not adding pace to his bowling

Kumar was never known for his express pace as he had accuracy and swing to cover it up. Talking on the pace aspect, he revealed that he never gave it a thought to have it in his armory.

In a video posted on Sunrisers Hyderabad’s official Twitter handle, Bhuvneshwar said: “To be honest, first couple of years I didn’t realise pace is something that needs to be added. As I kept playing, I realised with swing I need to improve my pace because bowling in late 120kph or just 130kph, batsmen were adjusting to the swing. So, I wanted to increase the pace, but I didn’t know how to do it. That was the general trend to train hard and spend time in the gym.”

“Fortunately, I was able to improve the pace and that really helped me in the later stages. So yes, when you have pace, not the express 140-plus, but bowling in the mid-130kph helps maintaining that swing and keep the batsman guessing.”

Kumar is not included in the World Test Championship final squad and for the five-match England Test series. But he clarified his intentions in a tweet later. “There have been articles about me not wanting to play Test cricket. Just to clarify, I have always prepared myself for all three formats irrespective of the team selection and will continue to do the same. Suggestion – please don’t write your assumptions based on “sources”!” he wrote on Twitter.