Sanjay Manjrekar decodes the reason behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s lean patch

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (PC: Twitter)

With the T20I World Cup 2022 coming up, cricket fans and analysts are concerned about India’s death bowling woes. The Asia Cup 2022 saw the batters in fine form but it was the bowlers who let the team down.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s lukewarm form in the death over was considered one of the reasons behind India’s failure in the Asia Cup. The seamer did not show much improvement during the Australia tour of India either.

Playing two T20 Internationals of the three-match series, the veteran picked just one wicket at a poor average of 91. Back-to-back poor performances by the Bhuvneshwar have resulted in the fans questioning the place of the 32-year-old.

Manjrekar backs Bhuvneshwar

Amidst the criticism, former Indian cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has backed the seamer. Manjrekar believes that the pacer needs some time off from the game as he has been playing continuous cricket over the past few months.

The cricket analyst reckoned that a break will help Bhuvneshwar analyse things better and come back to the form ahead of the T20I World Cup. Notably, the seamer has been rested from India’s upcoming three-match T20I series against South Africa.

In an interaction with Sports18, Manjrekar said,

"With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it’s never a very simple answer but you’ve got to give one of the simple answers, and one of the main reasons why Bhuvi seems to be off the boil - is playing too much cricket. In the sense, that he’s played all the matches coming into this series as well.”

Manjrekar opens up on Harshal’s poor performance

However, Bhuvneshwar is not the only concern for India. Harshal Patel is also struggling with his form. The RCB star made a comeback to the Indian team following an injury for the T20I series against Australia. The tour did not go as per plan as Harshal could scalp only one wicket after leaking runs at a worrisome average of 99.

Speaking about the same, Manjrekar added that the Indian team management should be ready for a replacement. He backed Mohammed Shami to make it to the team.

"So, I’m going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current performance to just match fatigue. Harshal Patel has limitations as a seam bowler, but India must look as one of the third seamer options and must look at a couple of others as options and I keep stressing on Mohammed Shami as the other option.”

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