Bhuvneshwar not just a new-ball bowler anymore

Twice in 2016, Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed a match after picking up a five-wicket haul on his comeback in Tests.

He returned to the XI after a gap of 19 months, for the third Test against West Indies in Gros Islet, and swung the ball both ways to return 5 for 33. Not counting the washed-out Port-of-Spain Test, India's next match was against New Zealand in Kanpur, where Bhuvneshwar has played numerous Ranji matches, but he was left out of the XI.

He returned for the next Test, in Kolkata, because "he could give us more on this kind of pitch with the new ball," captain Virat Kohli said. And he delivered as expected - his new-ball swing and nagging accuracy got him 5 for 48. He missed the next Test again, this time because of an injury.

Bhuvneshwar might have had pangs of déjà vu in Cuttack on Thursday when he was playing his first ODI in a year - his previous was against Australia in January 2016. Did he pick a five-for? No, just one wicket, but he played a pivotal role in India's 15-run win. He started India's defence of 381 with a maiden and swung the ball with no assistance from the pitch to end his first spell at 5-1-23-0.

"It is tough when you know that you're not playing the match, or playing after a long gap. So there is always some kind of nervousness," Bhuvneshwar said in Kolkata ahead of the third ODI. "I wasn't under pressure as such, but when you get an opportunity after a long time, you always want to do well. Playing a match is the best preparation one can have, and since I was out for a while, I tried to practice a lot in the nets. But it wasn't like being a part of an actual match situation. It's tough, but when you bowl the first two-three overs of the match, you get used to it and it gets easy after that."

When he returned to bowl in Cuttack, England needed 108 runs from 54 balls, with Eoin Morgan and Moeen Ali set. Off the second ball Bhuvneshwar bowled, Moeen skied the ball towards long-on. Ravindra Jadeja, one of India's best fielders, spilled the catch as the ball bounced off his chest. Bhuvneshwar changed his lengths and pace effectively to concede eight in the over.

"I didn't give away too many runs in the first over of my second spell, so that gave confidence that I could do well in the remaining overs," Bhuvneshwar said. "Whenever you go to bowl in the death, you always need an over to give yourself some confidence that you can bowl in this situation.

"I knew the match could go either way, but I had the experience of bowling in the death during IPL. The situation was a different here, though, there was dew and there is always more pressure in an international match in comparison to IPL."

In his next over, Moeen chopped one on to end a critical partnership. But the pressure was back on India when England needed 22 off the last over. Bhuvneshwar, bowling the final over, tried to execute the yorkers and didn't concede a boundary to help seal India's series win.

"Yes, it was difficult (to bowl yorkers with a wet ball). But before that match, at the start of the series, we practised bowling with the wet ball. That was one of the plans to execute in pressure situations.

"Firstly, thanks to IPL for the way I'm bowling in the death. When Sunrisers (Hyderabad) picked me, I had already played for the country, and they were heavily dependent on me to bowl in the death. So I was kind of experienced to bowling in that situation and I brought that mindset into international cricket as well. I just kept that in mind that whatever I was doing there, I'll do the same thing here."

Even though Jasprit Bumrah is looked at as India's death-bowling specialist, it was Bhuvneshwar who bailed out the hosts. He proved he was not only a new-ball bowler, especially on flat pitches.

A couple of years ago, there had also been concerns of Bhuvneshwar losing his swing, his primary weapon. Compared to an impressive 2013 - 28 wickets at an average of 34 - 2014 saw his ODI bowling average drop to 45.35 with 14 wickets. "If I have conditions on offer, I would swing the ball a lot more than the rest of the bowlers," he had said in 2015, a year in which his average came back into the mid-30s.

Now, provided he remains fit, Bhuvneshwar could be India's new-ball weapon in the Champions Trophy in England, where conditions will suit him more than anywhere else. His ODI record in the country also says so - 11 wickets in nine matches at an average of 24.63 and a parsimonious economy rate of 4.10.

Now, he will hope injuries, team strategies, or some other miscellaneous reasons don't leave him out of the XI.