Pune: Former England captain Michael Vaughan has lavished high praise on India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar whose impressive performance was critical to his team’s 66-run win in the series opening first ODI in Pune. Bhuvneshwar was one of the few bowlers who escaped unhurt during a high-scoring affair returning figures of 2/30 from nine overs.
The 31-year-old made his international return from a long injury layoff during the recently concluded T20I series between India and England. He was the man-of-the-match in the series-deciding third T20I taking 2/15 even as every other bowler went for plenty of runs.
Following his sparkling return, Vaughan has termed him the ‘most skilful’ limited-overs bowler in the world today. “Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the most skilful white-ball bowler in the world. I can’t think of any other that bowls at 80-odd miles an hour and has that white ball moving as he does,” Vaughan told Cricbuzz. “There’s no one I know that can just get the ball to subtly move like Kumar can. Whether it’s outswinger, the inswinger, the cutters. He can bowl the yorkers and the bouncers. Not often but when he wants to unsettle a batsman, he’ll bowl a bouncer. I don’t know of a more skilful bowler.
“At that pace around the world. When you think he’s coming back from an injury, a remarkable comeback for Bhuvneshwar Kumar,” he added.
Vaughan explained why facing Bhuvneshwar is more dangerous than any express pace bowler since the Indian bowler forces a batsman to think. “Give me someone bowling 90-odd miles an hour any day of the week. I’ll face them with my eyes shut because I just like the pace. But with someone like Bhuvneshwar, you have to think so much. Everything has to be spot on in your timing. Because you know he’ll be probing that front-foot, moving that ball either way. He can out skill you. He can bowl the balls that you necessarily can’t prepare for,” he said.