All posts tagged: Swing bowling

Always under-appreciated, never overwhelmed, Bhuvneshwar slays the young & fearless

Always under-appreciated, never overwhelmed, Bhuvneshwar slays the young & fearless

While the 15-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s fearless hitting has made him this season’s highest run-getter, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, at 36, has exploited that same trait in several new-age batsmen to emerge as one of the league’s top wicket-takers. Though he hasn’t yet got Suryavanshi’s wicket, Bhuvneshwar’s 26 scalps include the who’s who of Gen Next daredevils—Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Sahil Parakh, Sameer Rizvi, Ayush Mhatre, and a few more. The sly old fox has reminded the young turks that their stand-and-deliver, relentless attacking approach, though very popular with fans, isn’t bulletproof. He isn’t allowing the relentlessly attacking kids to run away with his sport. Not that he is getting any credit for keeping bowlers relevant in T20 cricket. But then, that has been Bhuvneshwar’s story all along. As a rookie bowler, he notched Sachin Tendulkar’s first duck in domestic cricket. He had a dream ODI debut against Pakistan, running through their top-order. He is on the Lord’s honours board. He has two Purple Caps and two IPL titles. Still, Bhuvi isn’t even the most talked-about cricketer from …

IPL 2026: Who’s the RCB pacer Auqib Nabi needs to emulate on his debut for Delhi Capitals | Cricket News

IPL 2026: Who’s the RCB pacer Auqib Nabi needs to emulate on his debut for Delhi Capitals | Cricket News

Ahead of Delhi Capitals’ IPL 2026 opener on Wednesday, Auqib Nabi will need to recall how his last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 outing for Jammu and Kashmir fetched him 15 wickets at an economy rate 7 runs per over. At the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, his economy was 5, while he was the hero of the historic Ranji Trophy triumph. “Keep it simple,” is the advice to the Baramulla pacer from J&K bowling coach P Krishna Kumar, ahead of his anticipated debut against Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday, asking him to disregard the IPL hype. Kumar urges the mild-mannered soft-spoken bowler to follow the template set by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. It’s mostly because both swing the ball, but also have calm temperaments. “Bhuvi is perhaps the best bowler in the later stages and with the new ball. He’s rarely hit by batsmen, because he swings the ball. Nabi up front has one of the best yorkers,” the coach says. “Bhuvi’s the guy to follow.” Auqib Nabi became the third fastest bowler to 60 wickets in …

What lies behind Mohammed Shami’s march to 200 ODI wickets? A romantic heart with a sadist’s skill | Cricket News

What lies behind Mohammed Shami’s march to 200 ODI wickets? A romantic heart with a sadist’s skill | Cricket News

The eyes of television cameras searched for Mohammed Shami. When they located him, he wore a shy, warm smile. He soon broke from the crowd and ambled to the run-up point, the trajectory of the next ball playing in his mind, the off-cutter that marked his two hundredth ODI wicket now a mere time-stamp on his remarkable cricketing journey. The moment suitably captured the essence of Shami the man— un-theatrical and un-obsessed with the statistical peaks, a superstar with an everyman’s persona, seam-scientist with a common man’s air. He wouldn’t have burned the midnight oil digging numbers or spent sleepless nights dreaming about his No 200, or evaluated his spot in the pantheon of India’s great fast bowlers. Such trivialities don’t fuss him. He is, at the heart, a pure romantic. The bowling is an extension of it—the flowing action, dancing as though to the percussive beats from the stands, the pliant fingers and loose, tensionless fingers coaxing the straight-seamed ball into a curvy, gyroscopic, path, and the sudden violence the ball assumes upon landing. …