Dismissing Sachin Tendulkar in Ranji Trophy was the turning point of my career – Bhuvneshwar Kumar

 

India’s former legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar has been dismissed for a duck for a solitary occasion in his first-class career. It was the Ranji Trophy final in 2009 when a young 19-year old Bhuvneshwar Kumar from Uttar Pradesh was able to dismiss the International heavyweight when the Mumbai batsman was yet to trouble the scorers.

Kumar, known for his swing, was able to get the ball into Sachin Tendulkar. The right-hander got an inside edge to his pads and the ball ballooned on the leg-side, where Shivakant Shukla took a good diving catch. Kumar had done something which was never done before and as expected he became the cynosure of all eyes after the big wicket of the Master Blaster.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped a five-wicket haul in the first innings of the 2009 Ranji Trophy final. After dismissing Sachin, Kumar revealed that the cricket boffins started to dig in his previous stats as he was the talk of the town.

“It was a big turning point, I had also picked wickets in that season before, if you see that season, I had picked 30-35 wickets, but dismissing Paaji highlighted all my previous performances. Who is this guy, what has he done? People started digging my stats from the past. People realised that I could do well as I had done well in the past as well. But that wicket was the turning point as people started noticing me after that,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar told Deep Dasgupta on ESPNCricinfo Cricketbaazi.

It was an opportunity for Bhuvneshwar Kumar to perform against the best and he was able to grab it with both hands. In fact, Kumar had recently credited his Uttar Pradesh captain Mohammad Kaif for placing the fielder on the leg-side for the big wicket of Tendulkar.

Kumar kept impressing one and all in the domestic circuit with his ability to swing the ball both ways. The right-arm bowler from Meerut was finally rewarded for his consistent performances and made his ODI and T20I debut against Pakistan in December 2012. In fact, Bhuvneshwar got the wicket on the first ball of his ODI debut.

Bhuvneshwar has snared 132 wickets in 114 ODI matches whereas he has claimed 41 wickets in 43 T20I matches. The Uttar Pradesh bowler was recently out of the game because of Sports Hernia injury.

Kumar has also added speed under his arsenal which has helped his reaping rewards. The 30-year old bowler would look to make a good comeback into the game.