From a stubborn teenager who rebelled when his parents didn’t want him to focus on cricket at the cost of his studies, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has undoubtedly come a long way.
As one of India’s most reliable pace bowlers, Kumar has everything going for him today. But this wasn’t always the case as Kumar reveals in a tell-all webisode of Cricbuzz’s new show, Spicy Pitch.
Kumar started his cricketing journey like any other young Indian— playing gully cricket in his hallway and the neighbourhood parks. But by the time he was 12-13 years old, Kumar had decided he wanted to play red-ball cricket at a proper stadium.
Even though his parents weren’t too sure, wanting him to focus on his studies instead, Kumar was adamant. And thus, he began a long and arduous journey — with 4 hours of practice every day after school — to the extent that Kumar was so tired by the time he came home that all he could do was flop down on his bed and go to sleep.
Bhuvi revealed that there were two major turning points in his cricketing journey. The first— when he got selected to the Under-15 cricket team. This convinced his parents that he could make something of himself in cricket.
The second defining moment came when he was only 19 years old. Playing for Uttar Pradesh in the 2008-09 season of Ranji Trophy, Bhuvi managed to get Sachin Tendulkar. To date, he is the only bowler who has managed to dismiss Tendulkar for a duck in domestic cricket.
Bhuvneshwar said: “I couldn’t even meet Sachin in the eyes when I got him out, I was that intimidating. And when the moment happened, I didn’t realize how big it was.”
“It was only when I saw it all over the news the next day that I understood the significance of that wicket. In a way, everything in my life started after that wicket. People began to know me— and every good performance of mine until that point suddenly started getting attention.” Bhuvi added.
Kumar talked about his entire cricketing career in the episode— from the early journey to how he managed to transform his game after reaching a plateau.
