Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The Current Indian Sultan of Swing

India has not produced too many great pace/medium pace bowlers. Kapil Dev is of course great due to his enormous success. My personal favorite has been Javagal Srinath. I do not think that anyone has been as effective on the dead and unfavorable pitches of India. Zaheer Khan has been quite effective as well. However, no other seamer has been remarkable.

Moreover, India has produced very few swing bowlers. The ones who did show up lacked consistency or fitness or commitment. Manoj Prabhakar was a very good swing bowler but he faded away due to multiple reasons. Irrfan Pathan 'was' an exception swing bowler. He truly looked like the best bowler around in his early days. Fitness, pace and consistency deserted him and now he is not even remotely as effective. Ajit Agarkar was really good as well but he too was marred by lack of pace and consistency. He had the problem of bowling too many boundary-balls. So, swing bowlers have come but they have failed to stay on and rule the scene.

Now, a new guy has arrived. Bhuvneshwar Kumar. In the batsman friendly sport that cricket is, now a days I switch on the television to see his bowl. He has great control over his line and length and has the ability to swing the ball both ways. These qualities are making him an effective as well as miserly customer. In spite of his lack of pace, he does not give away too many or easy runs. Plus, he comes across as a thinking bowler, who sets up the batsman. And that is really exciting to watch.

One area where he must improve is pace. He would be lot more effective if he improves his pace as history indicates that the best swing bowlers had swing as well as pace. And several promising swing bowlers went away with making a mark due to lack of pace. He is young and can (and should) add little bit more pace in his deliveries.

Having seen Irrfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar show a lot of promise and yet losing out on a long and successful career, I am nervous about Bhuvneshwar Kumar's prospects. I hope he does not go away in similar manner. He looks extremely promising and I hope he is able to serve the country (as effectively) for a long...long time.