Bhuvneshwar Kumar always knew how to swing the white ball but now he feels more complete as a bowler with an ability to generate pace in the death overs.
Bhuvneshwar bowled an impressive first spell comprising pace and swing as he finished with brilliant figures of 6.1-2-9-3 including the wicket of dangerous David Warner. "When I first came into the side, I needed conditions favouring swing bowling to flourish. A year after making my debut, I wanted to increase my pace, but I had no clue how to go about that," Bhuvneshwar made a humble admission during the post-match news conference.
The Meerut-born pacer attributed it to the inputs from strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu for being able to increase of pace which has immensely helped him bowling during slog overs.
"Shankar Basu introduced me to a different type of training that eventually helped me increase my pace. That, in turn, went on to help me bowl at the death too."
Asked about the spell, he said: "Yes, I had planned to bowl like that. As soon as I bowled the first ball, I knew there was some swing on offer. To Warner, I knew outswingers can work against him. Pitching it on the offstump and getting it to shape away."
With senior pros Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami warming the benches, Bhuvneshwar is now the leader of the Indian bowling attack but he does not want to look at it from that angle. "I won't say I am a premier bowler or anything, because we are all trying to work hard and whoever gets the opportunity, wants to do well. Workload is taken care of a lot more these days. The support staff is working very hard on getting that right for us. It comes with time and adapting to the work culture," he said.