When you talk about the art of swinging the new ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s name is always among the first ones to come to mind. But you wouldn’t bet on him with the old ball. The UP pacer, however, is fast learning to use the old ball and helping Sunrisers Hyderabad by taking responsibility to bowl in death overs. In an interview with Amit Chaudhary, the current Purple Cap holder talks about the challenge of death bowling. Excerpts
In the match against RCB, AB de Villiers played a brilliant innings and single-handedly took that match away from Sunrisers. What would say about the inningsIJ
Everyone knows that he is the best batsman in the world. He is the most difficult batsman to bowl especially in the slog overs. He can hit your best bowl out of the park so it was a bad game for us.
You bowled the 18th over in that match. What were your plans against himIJ
As I said he is the kind of batsman who can hit you out of the park on your best bowl, you need a bit of luck to get him out because he plays all the shots, he plays reverse sweep, he plays scoop so even on your best ball, you need a bit of luck. I was trying to bowl yorkers because that is the best ball to bowl in the slog overs.
Talking about the yorkers, these days bowlers bowl two types of yorkers - one is the traditional one right in the block hole and another one is wide of the off-stump. Which one do you preferIJ
It depends on the batsman. For someone like de Villiers, I would like to bowl wide yorkers because he can come to the off-stump and play the scoop shot over short fine-leg. But if a batsman doesn’t do anything like that, I prefer to hit the block hole.
Bowling yorkers is a double-edged sword because if it doesn’t land in the right area, it can be hit for the maximum. So, how difficult is it to get your yorkers right when you are under pressureIJ
It’s not just yorkers, it’s difficult to bowl any ball when there is pressure. Especially in the slog overs when batsmen try to hit every ball beyond the boundary, there is always pressure. So it’s all about execution and how you practice in the nets.
In Twenty20s batsmen improvise a lot and keep changing their position at the crease. How difficult it is to bowl to such a batsmanIJ
Of course it is difficult to bowl to these batsmen because you don’t know what he is going to do on a particular ball. If you can’t bowl in a particular area and the batsman jumps out of the crease, you are in trouble. Especially the batsmen like AB who does things very differently. It’s very difficult to bowl in the death.
As the batsmen have become more creative with their shots these days, so when you run in to bowl, do you keep two-three plans in your mind to tackle thatIJ Or you just focus on one thing and let the batsman deal with itIJ
You can’t work if you have two-three plans when you run in to bowl. You will always get confused. So, I always try to focus on one plan and execute it.
For a bowler, is it difficult to concentrate when the batsmen keep moving around the crease and play unorthodox shotsIJ
No, it doesn’t affect the concentration but yes it is difficult for a bowler to bowl when a batsman jumps around, steps out or does unorthodox things.
So, in that situation, what do you do to guess the batsman’s moveIJ
In slog overs, because I try to bowl yorkers, I always watch batsman’s feet but in the first six overs, when the ball is new and provides movement in the air, I just focus on the spot where I plan to bowl.
Which kind of batsmen you find more difficult to bowl at — powerful like Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard or smart like AB de Villiers and Glenn MaxwellIJ
I think they all are good batsmen and it’s difficult to bowl to all of them, especially on their day but I think de Villiers is more difficult to bowl at because he plays unorthodox shots and he has shot for all corners of the ground.
You have world No 1 Dale Steyn as your bowling partner. How is it like bowling along side himIJ
He is one of the best fast bowlers in the world currently and I am learning a lot from him. In the nets, he shares his experience about various things like what he has done, what he is doing right now and especially the variations.
It’s a hypothetical question. If you are given an option to choose between pace and swing, what would you chooseIJ
(laughs) It’s just a question but it really can’t happen. Pace is his strength and swing is mine and you always rely on your strength. But if given an option, I will always prefer swing.
After IPl, India is going to England for five-Test series. You think it will be difficult to get into Test mode from T20sIJ
We have almost three weeks before that and we also have a couple of tour games in England to get into Test mode from T20s so I think that’s enough time.
