Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been one of India’s most consistent swing bowlers over the last decade. With 294 international wickets to his name across formats, he has delivered several unforgettable performances. From Tests to T20Is, Bhuvneshwar’s ability to swing the ball both ways has troubled the best batters in the world. In this article, we highlight the top 5 best bowling performances of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in international cricket.
Let’s look at the Top 5 Best Bowling Performances of Bhuvneshwar Kumar
1) 6/82 vs England at Lord’s (2014 Test Match)
This is the best bowling performance in the career of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. This was at Lord’s and India played one of their best test matches during this match. He took 6 wickets for 82 runs in 31 overs that he bowled. He had an economy rate of 2.65 runs per over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the wickets of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Ben Stokes among others. He restricted England to 319 in the first innings. This allowed India to win the match by 95 runs.
2) 5/33 vs West Indies at Gros Islet (2016 Test Match)
This was also one of the best away performances by an Indian fast bowler and this was in the West Indies. It was the first batting innings for the West Indies after India had made 353 in the first innings. Bhuvneshwar Kumar destroyed the batting line-up as he took 5 wickets for 33 runs in 23.4 overs. He only gave away 1.39 runs per over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was at his lethal best and he also took 1 wicket for 13 runs in 12 overs. India won the match by 237 runs.
3) 5/48 vs New Zealand at Eden Gardens (2016 Test Match)
This was one of his best performances in India in Test Cricket. The year 2016 was very good for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. In this test match at Eden Gardens, Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 5 Wickets for 48 runs in 15 overs. He gave away 3.20 runs per over. He took the wickets of Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Henry Nichols among others. New Zealand were all out for 204. India won this match by 176 runs.
4) 5/4 vs Afghanistan in Dubai (2022 Men’s T20I Asia Cup)
This was the best bowling performance In white ball cricket for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He took 5 wickets giving away 4 runs. He took more wickets than the number of runs he gave away. He bowled 4 overs for 4 runs at just 1 run per over. This was an important match in the Asia Cup. He got the Wickets of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazratullah Zazai among others. Such performances are rare in T20I Cricket. India made 212 while batting first and they won the match by a whopping 101 runs.
5) 5/42 vs Sri Lanka at Colombo (2017 ODI Match)
This is the best performance by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in ODI Cricket. This was against Sri Lanka in 2017. He was at his peak at that time. It was the first innings of the match. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled 9.4 overs in this match. He gave away 41 runs and got 5 wickets at 4.34 runs per over. He was so good that he restricted Sri Lanka to 238 and India won the match by 6 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is still very well in the IPL.
