Following the omission of Jasprit Bumrah, and Deepak Chahar form the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia due to injuries, India will now have to rely on the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh to deliver under hard, bouncy conditions suited for only the best fast bowlers down under.
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However, former Pakistan fasto bowling legend Wasim Akram believes that Bhuvneshwar Kumar could struggle in Australian conditions if the ball doesn’t swing and could prove to be effective. While Bhuvneshwar is the most experienced white-ball bowler in the squad, his reliance on swing and not pace could make him struggle against some of the top batters in the world.
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“India have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, he is good with the new ball, but with his pace, if the ball is not swinging, he will probably struggle there. But he is a very good bowler no doubt, swings both ways, has the yorker. But you need pace in Australia,” Akram was quoted as saying in an English daily.
“You see that guy from Kashmir, Umran Malik, he is quick. India need to stick with him because he has got pace. If I was in the Indian think-tank, I would have picked him in the squad all the time,” he added.
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Akram was all praise for 360 degree batter Suryakumar Yadav and feels he could be extremely lethal against any bowling attack. “He is a very dangerous player, he is a 360 player. I saw him first time when he joined the Kolkata Knight Riders. I spent two years with him. I was amazed that the KKR let him go. He was young, he was 19 or 20 then, imagine, he would have been the (KKR) captain by now,” Wasim said.
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“I think he is the future as far as the T20 format is concerned. He is a treat to watch, one of my favourite players in the format no doubt,” the former left arm pacer concluded.
