Time to look at Deepak Chahar now in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar: Sunil Gavaskar

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has said that it is time for the Indian team management to replace Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Deepak Chahar. Since making his comeback in ODIs, Kumar hasn’t taken a single in the two games and conceded 64 and 67 respectively. Since IPL 2018, he has been in and out of the national team due to injuries. It has also been observed that he struggles in his comeback game and finds his rhythm after playing a few games. The same has been happening with him since the second leg of the IPL 2021.

Meanwhile, Deepak Chahar has been performing well in the last few years in T20Is. He has played 17 games and picked 23 wickets at an average of 20.38 and an economy rate of 8.11 so far. He also picked a six-wicket haul against Bangladesh in 2019. Last year, he made his ODI debut on the tour of Sri Lanka. He has picked six wickets and has the highest batting score of unbeaten 69, which proved to be match-winning innings against Sri Lanka.

Speaking on Kumar’s performances, Sunil Gavaskar has said that it is time to look beyond Bhuvneshwar and need to invest in Chahar. The 1983-World Cup winner added that Chahar is the handy batter down the order.

“I think it’s time to look at Deepak Chahar now. He is younger, pretty much the same kind of bowler, and bats handily down the order,” Gavaskar said on Sports Today.

Bhuvi has been a tremendous servant but has been expensive: Sunil Gavaskar

The 72-year-old added that Kumar has been a tremendous servant to Indian cricket but has been expensive in the last year with the ball. He pointed out that the right-arm bowler’s slower deliveries and yorkers are not working anymore.

“Bhuvi has been a tremendous servant of Indian cricket but in the last year or so, even in franchise level T20 cricket, he has been expensive. Not so much at the start of the innings but towards the end. He used to bowl those brilliant yorkers and slower deliveries, but those are not working anymore. That can happen, the opposition is studying you all the time and they will know how to be prepared for it. So maybe it is time to look at somebody else,” added the 1983-World Cup winner.