Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh is an Indian international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket and for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. Kumar is a right-arm fast medium bowler who swings the ball both ways efficiently, with his inswingers more effective than outswing, especially adept at creating late swing, and a useful lower order right-handed batsman.
On his international debut, a T20I match against Pakistan in December 2012, he took a three-wicket haul, and in the ODI series that followed, he made his One Day International debut. After his five-wicket haul against South Africa in the first T20I in February 2018, Kumar became the first Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul in all formats of the game.
Early life
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was born in Meerut on 5 February 1990. It was his sister Rekha Adhana, who encouraged him to play cricket and took him to his first coaching centre when he was 13.Domestic career
Kumar plays for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket. He has also played for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. Kumar made his first-class debut at the age of 17 against Bengal.In the 2nd semi-final against North Zone, Kumar took one wicket with an economy rate of 3.03. Although being a lower-order batsman, he scored 128 off 312 balls surpassing all the scores of his teammates and maintained a partnership with four batsmen. He was consequently awarded the Man of the match. In the 2008/09 Ranji Trophy final, he became the first bowler to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar, rated as India's greatest batsman, for a duck in first-class cricket.
International career
Debut
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was included in the playing eleven of the first T20I match against Pakistan at Bengaluru following Parvinder Awana's poor showing in the previous series against England. He took 3 wickets for 9 runs in 4 overs in the match with an economy rate of 2.25. He took the wickets of Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal.He opened his account in ODIs by taking a wicket in the very first ball that he bowled, dismissing Mohammad Hafeez of Pakistan.. After this great performance his way to success as an important player in Indian cricket went on.
Test debut
In his debut Test series, he took 6 wickets in four matches against Australia in the 2013 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He also had a record partnership with M. S. Dhoni for the 9th wicket in the first Test of the series. He has the highest score by an Indian number 10 on debut, 38.Kumar made his debut on 22 February 2013 against Australia during 1st test of Australia Tour to India in 2013. He was given the test cap by Ishant Sharma. He struggled to take any wickets in the first innings, mainly because it was more of a spin track rather than a swing and pace favourable pitch. Later, in the same test during India's batting, he helped set up a massive partnership of 140 runs for the 9th wicket with M. S. Dhoni. This partnership helped India establish a lead of 192 runs. During this course, he was part of a few records and was given a standing ovation by the team and the crowd once he got out with a score of 38 runs. When India went on to field in the second innings he didn't get a chance to bowl and went wicketless on his debut. In his second test match, he got three wickets getting Australia's David Warner, Ed Cowan and Shane Watson out. In the first innings of his second test against Australia, Kumar went wicketless, mainly because he could not get the ball to swing and was given very few overs. But in the second innings, he took the important wickets of Shane Watson, David Warner and Steve Smith claiming 6 wickets at an average of 22.83 and an economy rate of 3.91.
Champions Trophy and Tri-Series
Kumar was a part of the team which won the 2013 Champions Trophy. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC and Cricinfo.On 9 July 2013, he posted career-best figures on 4–8 against Sri Lanka in the Tri-Nation tournament, which India would go on to win. He was awarded the "Man of the Series" in this tournament after he finished the series with most wickets.
Tour of England
Kumar proved that he could be handy with the bat in Test matches when he scored 2 consecutive half-centuries in the 1st test of the Investec Test Series 2014 against England with scores of 58 and 63*. He also had his 1st five-wicket haul in his test career in the first innings of the same match. Kumar had his second five-wicket haul in the next match of the same series and got his third fifty in Test in the same match. He became the first Indian number 9 player to get three fifties in one series, even going on to add career-best bowling figures of 6/82 versus England at Lord's. Despite India losing the series 1–3, he was named the Indian Player of the Series.Rise in form and success
Kumar was expected to start in all matches for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup but could not due to poor fitness. He started only one match against UAE. His 2016 season was restricted to only four tests.In the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, he led the Indian bowling attack alongside Jasprit Bumrah and reached the finals with the team. He was also included in the Team of the Tournament of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. He was selected in the ODI XI of the year 2017 by Cricinfo.
On 18 February 2018, Kumar picked up five wickets in the first T20I against South Africa, where India won by 28 runs. This bowling spell of 5/24 was his best in T20Is. He also became the second Indian bowler to take 5 wickets in T20Is. On 24 February, Kumar picked up two wickets in the third T20I in a seven-run victory over South Africa winning the three-match series 1–2. After picking seven wickets in the T20I series, he became the Indian fast bowler with most wickets in a bilateral T20I series, he was also awarded the Player of the Series.
In January 2019, in the first ODI against Australia, Kumar took his 100th wicket in ODIs. In April 2019, he was named in India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. However, he was ruled out for many matches in the middle due to a leg injury.
Indian Premier League career
Following his good performances in the 2008/09 Ranji season, he was handed an IPL contract by Royal Challengers Bangalore. In 2011, he was signed by Pune Warriors India. After the dissolution of the PWI team, he was picked up in 2014 by Sunrisers Hyderabad.For his performances in 2014, 2016 and 2017 he was named in the Cricinfo IPL XI. He was also named in the Cicbuzz XI for 2016 and 2017.
In 2016, he contributed towards an impressive season after winning IPL 2016 with Sunrisers Hyderabad, he also won the Purple Cap that season for picking up the 23 wickets which was the most. He took five wickets in a match for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2017. In the 2017 Indian Premier League, Kumar won the Purple Cap for the second time in a row for picking up 26 wickets.
On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI. Kumar was retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2018 IPL season. On 29 March 2018, Sunrisers Hyderabad announced Kumar as the vice-captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2018 season. He along with Siddarth Kaul, Rashid Khan and Sandeep Sharma helped Sunrisers reach the final with good bowling.