On Wednesday, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) registered their first win of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 when they defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by nine wickets at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
It was SRH’s fourth match of the fourteenth edition, and the David Warner-led side were in desperate need to record a victory as they had lost their previous three games. However, despite getting over the line for the first time in the ongoing tournament, one incident gave Sunrisers management a headache.
The concerned episode is related to SRH frontline pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who gave his side a major scare as he walked off the field with a thigh strain in the match. He had started off the proceedings well in the first innings of the game, conceding only six runs in his opening over.
In the second over, Bhuvi picked up the prized wicket of Punjab skipper KL Rahul. The Meerut-lad bowled another over in the powerplay to finish the spell with impressive figures of 1 for 16 from three overs. But soon after finishing the third over, he left the field and did not return to bowl his final over.
Nobody knew what exactly happened until commentator Lisa Sthalekar informed on-air that Bhuvneshwar has suffered a thigh strain. As the tournament progresses, this is indeed a worrying sign for the 2016 champions as they are already missing the services of yorker specialist T Natarajan, who has been struggling due to a niggle.
Though, it’s not the first time that the right-armer has faced injury problems. After getting through the hernia surgery early last year, he came back in IPL 2020. But Bhuvneshwar played only 4 games in the previous season before pulling his hamstring. He missed out on the remaining season for Sunrisers.
The swing expert then underwent a rehabilitation process and returned to action last month when he featured in all the five T20Is against England in March. Bhuvneshwar was quite impressive with the ball as he picked up four wickets and followed the momentum by claiming six wickets in the three-match ODI leg.
When it comes to the ongoing IPL 2021, Bhuvi has taken three wickets from 4 matches at an economy rate of 9.
