Now, India set sights on Eng, Oz

Cape Town, February 26

The Indian team’s showing during the tour of South Africa augurs well for the tougher assignments against England and Australia later this year, feels pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar. After a narrow 2-1 loss in the Tests, India ended the bilateral series on a high after notching up a thrilling seven-run win in the third and final T20 International to take the series 2-1, in addition to the ODI series they won by a comprehensive 5-1 margin.
“We don’t want to be too greedy and we are happy with these two trophies. Hopefully, next time we will win all the three trophies,” said Kumar, who was named the Man of the Series in the T20I series. “This tour has been brilliant, particularly talking about Test series. Yes, we lost two matches, but the series was very close. The tour has given us a lot of confidence, and we are ready to go to England and Australia, and do better there,” he added.
Kumar said variations and timing were key to his success in T20 cricket. “T20 cricket is all about using variations and timing has to be perfect. Whenever I bowled knuckle balls, I wanted batsmen to go after that. That way you can get wickets and that’s one of the main reasons why I have been successful in powerplays,” he said.
Throughout the tour, Kumar has been the standout bowler for India but the pacer attributed his success to the entire bowling unit. “When bowling, I don’t think I am the leader. Instead every bowler while bowling thinks he is the leader. Only then he can win matches. Individually, you need to have a brilliant day to take 10 wickets on your own. Mostly you can take only 4-5 wickets. So it’s about partnerships and hunting in the pack. That’s what cricket is about whether batting or bowling,” said Kumar.
When asked about his omission from the second Test, Kumar brushed it off in jest, and instead choose to revel in the present. “I don’t know about that (not playing in second Test at Centurion). I don’t want to go back to the Tests, or why I didn’t play. It’s all about team effort. If you talk about that match, there were bowlers who could bowl brilliantly in those conditions,” he said.