India face Bhuvneshwar dilemma while hoping for game time
Bhuvneshwar Kumar faces an arduous challenge of remaining relevant in the shortest format as a young Indian team is expected to face tough resistance from New Zealand in the second T20 International on Sunday.
The series-opener in Wellington was abandoned due to inclement weather and the Indian players must be itching to get onto the park which, inarguably, has the most scenic backdrop.
Ironically, the region where the ground is located is known as ‘Bay of Plenty' and Indian cricket at this point has plenty to ponder as far as its approach in T20 format is concerned.
While the Sky Stadium was shorter in terms of dimensions, the Indian team will have to make adjustments as the ‘Bay Oval' ground has bigger side boundaries and is an open ground unlike Wellington.
On this tour, the presence of a near 33 year-old Bhuvneshwar is one such dilemma that the team management might have to handle. There are some probing questions and quicker the answers are sought, better it would be for Indian cricket.
Is Bhuvneshwar going to be around for the T20 World Cup in 2024 with a sharp decline in his pace? Does he have enough time to work around his issues as he is not potent enough on good batting tracks? Not many T20IS are lined-up next year and he is largely becoming a single-format player, so where does it leave him? At this moment, all the answers seem to be in negative and hence a question arises whether playing the senior-most pacer would be akin to taking away an opportunity from a youngster to get into the groove.
It is a double-edged sword that interim head coach VVS Laxman and captain Pandya will be facing.
Not playing Bhuvneshwar when he is on the cusp of a personal milestone (4 more wickets for highest tally of 40 in a calendar year) may leave him demoralised.
Most of his 36 wickets have come in bowler-friendly conditions and against lesser opponents. On slightly flatter wickets and against better batting attacks, Bhuvneshwar has come a cropper.
But playing him will be a missed opportunity for the team management to check out on how the pair of Umran Malik and Mohammed Siraj would match up against the might of players like Finn Allen, Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway in pressure situations.
Umran, India's fastest bowler by a distance, needs to be groomed. —