Bhuvneshwar Kumar is playing too much cricket: Sanjay Manjrekar blames fatigue for dip in India pacer's form
India Today
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar played down concerns around Bhuvneshwar Kumar's form, saying the veteran India pacer is fatigued after playing too much cricket.
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has blamed fatigue for a dip in Bhuvneshwar Kumar's form, saying that the star pacer is not one of the strongest guys going around but he has been playing too much cricket this year. Bhuvneshwar has been rested from the limited-overs series against South Africa and that can help the pacer regain momentum before the all-important T20 World Cup.
There have been concerns over Bhuvneshwar's death-over bowling, as the pacer was been far from impressive in the death overs, as India conceded a lot of runs in the last part of the innings. Bhuvneshwar conceded 31 runs (15 and 16 runs) in the two overs he bowled in the series opener at Mohali, the first of two matches he was able to play against Australia.
"With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it’s never a very simple answer but you’ve got to give one of the simple answers and one of the main reasons why Bhuvi seems to be off the boil - is playing too much cricket. In the sense, that he’s played all the matches coming into this series as well," Sanjay Manjrekar said while speaking on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show SPORTS OVER THE TOP
"The Bhuvneshwar Kumar I have seen over the years, he’s not one of the strongest guys going around, he’s not somebody who takes a lot of workloads, he plays one format and hardly any other. He’s somebody if you notice, barring injury, if he comes later a break to play in any tournament, he’s at his best in the first few games.
Manjrekar further pointed out that India must look for third seamer options as Harshal Patel has his limitations as a seam bowler.
"So, I’m going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current performance to just match fatigue. Harshal Patel has limitations as a seam bowler, but India must look as one of the third seamer options and must look at a couple of others as options and I keep stressing on Mohammed Shami as the other option," Manjrekar added.
