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5 Reasons why the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the England tour was obvious
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s key strength was his ability to swing the ball with precise measurement and sharpness when he had begun his journey for India in 2012. After long 9 years, swinging the ball through both ways has been Kumar’s main strength. Hence, questions have come up after his name was omitted from the Indian squad for the forthcoming World Test Championship final against New Zealand as well as for the five-Test series against England, scheduled to commence just after the completion of WTC.
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There is a reason behind the criticism being raised in the cricket fraternity for the omission of Kumar's name. (In the way Kumar penetrates the ball, swinging it both ways on the pitch, is extremely conducive to the unpredictable weather in England.) His style of bowling is tailor-made for the English conditions. In the recent Test series, held on Australian or on South African soil, Team India was hesitant to use Kumar due to his one-dimension bowling quality. But everybody knows how that one dimension suits English conditions. (It was clearly vivid in Kumar’s bowling on previous occasions.)And the pacer has proved that previously. (The lanky medium pacer earned best player’s award in the series for his outstanding show in England in 2014 where he scalped 19 wickets in only five Tests including a 6 for 82 at Lords). In the 2014 Test series in England, Bhuvneshwar was jointly awarded the ‘Player of the Series’ for his exceptional all-round performance. In five Tests, he picked up 19 wickets including a six-for 82 at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Additionally, he also scored 247 runs, including three half-centuries. But since the next year in 2018, Kumar's career graph in Test cricket started sinking gradually. His Test career can be called a mixture of mystery, injury drama, and misfortune. Let us make an effort to find out 5 Reasons why the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the England tour was obvious.
The injury issues: (Kumar left the series after the ODI series following an injury during the concluding One Day International match. He was ruled out of Test in that trip).Bhuvneshwar had to leave the tour early after playing the white-ball leg, as he injured himself during the final ODI. That injury meant he was not going to feature in the red-ball leg of the tour. Little did anyone know, Bhuvneshwar was not going to play another red-ball official match then as his last first-class game was way back in January 2018, (being one of the five medium pacers against South Africa at Johannesburg) one of the five pacers which India fielded in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa. Since then, in more than the last three years, Kumar has not played in a single red-ball match. The reason is simple. Kumar has been struggling to survive from constant injuries.
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Constantly ignored by selectors for Tests
After the 2019 World Cup, India went on a tour of the West Indies. Bhuvneshwar found his way into the ODI and T20I squad, but his name was not chosen for the Test squad. Despite being a part of the squad that played in Australia earlier that year he did not get a call. But here we were, at the start of the ICC World Test Championship and one of the finest bowlers in the country was not considered.
In the following home series against South Africa and the subsequent Test series in New Zealand, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was ignored once again. By now, it seems that it was quite clear to the selectors and Bhuvneshwar himself that he is not going to be a red-ball bowler anymore. But, that does not explain why Bhuvneshwar would avoid first-class matches for his state. Well, he did not have enough opportunities. When the Ranji Trophy matches were going on, Bhuvneshwar was either playing for India or recovering from an injury. This has been one of the 5 Reasons why the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the England tour was obvious.
Lack of first-class cricket for Uttar Pradesh
In 2018-19 he was in Australia with the squad but did not get chances. (Playing for India in a Test series in 2019-20 Bhuvneshwar again injured himself, failing to make himself available even in Ranji Trophy for the next two consecutive years.) In 2019-20, he was playing for India in white-ball cricket and was injured for the second half, failing to make it to the Ranji XI for state two years in a row. Then pandemic attacked and all domestic competitions including Ranji Trophy matches in 2020-21 were closed. (The bowler could not prove his fitness and naturally the selection committee did not have any favorable point to give him the back-up.) Bhuvneshwar had nothing to show the Indian selectors that they can back him to deliver more than 20 overs in a day and get through a Test series.
Missing Australian tour of 2020-21
In the Gabba Test when India found themselves without the four pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar could have stepped up. But, he was not in Australia. He could not take the plane to Australia in the first place because of an injury that he sustained in the IPL 2020. He was fit midway through the Test series, but he could not have been called up to Australia as quarantine would have taken his time. It just happens to be a case of bad luck and missed opportunities. It has seen Bhuvneshwar’s Test career take a dip like this.
There is no denying the fact that he could have been an ideal no. 8, pairing either with R. Aswin and Ravindra Jadeja in the Indian XI in England, but that won’t be the case. The decision of not sending Bhuvneshwar to this tour simply boils down to the lack of red-ball games under his belt and the selectors’ constant ignorance, when it comes to bringing him back in this team.
Prior to IPL 2021, (Kumar also missed out a couple of matches due to injury that he already had been suffering from) he had to miss out on some of the matches due to a niggle which he was carrying. Sending him to a long Test tour would put him at risk of getting badly injured in the year of the ICC T20 World Cup.
The emergence of the trio of Ishant-Shami-Bumrah
He remains an invaluable asset to the white-ball set-up, and the selectors know that very well. For the time being, we might have seen curtains fall on Bhuvneshwar’s Test career. But, it feels that decision was seen coming on its way once the trio of Shami, Ishant, and Bumrah proved their abilities in England in 2018 and that has been one of the 5 Reasons why the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the England tour was obvious.
An incident dated 2018 reflects that Bhuvneshwar was rated with the red-ball in only suitable conditions. After picking up six wickets in the first Test in Cape Town and scoring 38 runs in that low-scoring affair, he was dropped from the XI in the Centurion Test. Captain Virat Kohli suggested that the team management felt that Ishant Sharma, a senior pro, was a must in the XI for his experience and the conditions in Centurion were less helpful for Bhuvneshwar. He did come back to play that final Test in Johannesburg, where he picked up four scalps, which was his last Test.
But, it was quite clear that Bhuvneshwar was not going to be India’s first choice for fast pacey pitches in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Something which they stood on during the Australia tour in 2018-19. In the second Test in Perth, when Kohli wanted to drop a spinner and play four pacers, he went back to Umesh Yadav, and quite rightly so. Hence, the only overseas conditions where Bhuvneshwar was going to get the backing of his team was England. But, India now has confidence in Shami, Bumrah, Ishant, and Umesh, all four who played for India in England in 2018 and did fairly well. The quartet has since then been delivered in all conditions. Hence, when Bhuvneshwar’s absence wasn’t felt in 2018 in England, his Test career looked diminished. And since has continued to be so.
