Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s top three performances in ODI Cricket 

Out of favour, Indian star Bhuvneshwar Kumar burst into the scene in 2012 as a young swing bowling sensation. In his very first series against Pakistan, the youngster from Uttar Pradesh swung his way into success. 

Despite starting to sink his teeth as a Test bowler Bhuvneshwar became a good white ball bowler. With 141 wickets from 121 games, the right-arm pacer is one of India’s best bowlers of this era. 

In this article, we cast a closer look at Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s top three performances in ODI Cricket. 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 4/8 versus Sri Lanka – 2013 – Port of Spain 

India, Sri Lanka, and West Indies played a tri-series in 2013 held in the Caribbean islands. After losing their first two games, India made a comeback to the tournament with a win against the hosts. In a rain-affected game, India batted first and scored 119/3 from their 29 overs. 

After the Duckworth and Lewis method came into play, Sri Lanka needed 178 runs from 26 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked 4/8 which included the wickets of Mahela Jayawardene, Upul Tharanga, and Kumar Sangakkara. Lahiru Thirimanne became Kumar’s fourth wicket as India won the game by 81 runs to qualify for the finals.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar -5/42 versus Sri Lanka – 2017 – Colombo 

India had already wrapped up this series against Sri Lanka and were leading 4-0. The final game of the series saw Bhuvneshwar pick 5/42 which is his only fifer in ODI Cricket. Niroshan Dickwella and Dilshan Munaweera were the earliest two wickets for Kumar. 

During his 2nd spell, Bhuvneshwar got the wicket of Lahiru Thirimanne for 67. The fourth wicket was that of Milinda Siriwardene for 18. Lasith Malinga then became wicket number five as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 238. India won the game by 6 wickets as Virat Kohli scored 110 not out while Kedar Jadhav scored 63. 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 53 not out versus Sri Lanka – 2017- Pallekele 

Sri Lanka batted first and scored 236/8 from their 50 overs as Milinda Siriwardena scored 58. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan then added 109 runs for the first wicket as India looked good to win the game with ease. Akila Dhananjaya then ran through the Indian batting to reduce them to 131/7. 

The onus fell on former skipper MS Dhoni to guide his team to a win from a hopeless situation. MS Dhoni found an able ally in Bhuvneshwar Kumar who chose the right time to score his 1st ODI fifty. The right-handed batter was not out on 53 from 80 balls with four boundaries and a six.