Bhuvneshwar writing unusual script as India pacer

They show promise. They establish themselves. They lose pace. They lose swing. They get injured. They fade away into oblivion. That's been the story of most of India's pacers over the last decade.

When Bhuvneshwar Kumar got injured and looked like his own long-lost brother during his sparse appearances in Australia, many feared even he would follow the same path. But his performance in the Indian Premier League has more or less reassured that Bhuvneshwar is ready to return as India's lead pacer in limited-overs formats.

Not just because Bhuvneshwar has emerged as one of the top wicket-takers of IPL 2015. But more importantly because he has surfaced as the leader of the most potent pace attack in the tournament.

Dale Steyn. Trent Boult. Praveen Kumar. Ishant Sharma. All these seasoned campaigners are Bhuvneswhar's colleagues in the Sunrisers Hyderabad line-up. And Bhuvneshwar has overshadowed each one of them with his immaculate line and length up front and at the back-end of each of the 12 matches Sunrisers have played so far.

With Twenty20 being primarily a batsman's game, Sunrisers' comeback in the latter half of the tournament is often attributed only to David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan's stupendous contributions with the bat, and Bhuvneshwar's influence on the team is often ignored.

"To have a bowler who is as effective with the new ball as at the end of the innings is a great asset to any side," Sunrisers coach Tom Moody said. "He has the wicket-taking ability. With the new ball he can swing the ball both ways.

"His discipline at the death overs has been second to none. He is up there with some of the best death bowlers that have been playing this year. He has got his yorkers in and the use of the timing of his slower ball has been very impressive. We are very lucky to have him."

Since the balance of the game has shifted more in batsmen's favour, Bhuvneshwar's economy rate of 7.51 so far appears impressive in general. Consider the fact that all but one of his 46.5 overs have been bowled either in the first six overs with fielding restrictions or in the last five overs. His dot-ball percentage of 43 [122 of 281] is also highly appreciable considering the difficult times when Warner has thrown the ball to him.

Pace has never been Bhuvneshwar's forte. He belongs to the good old clan of those who bowl in the right channel and get the ball to move consistently. When it comes to death overs, he again sticks to the conventional method. While many great bowlers have tried to bowl full outside off and have thus been punished by the batsmen, Bhuvneshwar has relied mostly on yorkers. To his credit, he has got most of them right as well, even while bowling against the best of the finishers.

It was evident during Sunrisers' last game, against Kings XI Punjab. David Miller was belligerent with the bat. With 57 required off three overs, Miller amassed 18 runs off the 18th over against Boult, his most expensive over in IPL, and 22 off the last over, bowled by Ishant. The only reason Kings XI fell short by just five runs was the penultimate over, which saw Bhuvneshwar bowl low full tosses to keep Miller at bay, and concede 11 runs.

Miller had no qualms in admitting Bhuvneshwar's over being the difference between the two teams, saying had he managed to get after the pace bowler, "it could have been a different story".

It wasn't to be for Miller. But if Bhuvneshwar manages to keep himself fit, his can definitely be a tale different than many of his predecessors.