MS Dhoni’s inability to rotate strike during the past one year has apparently been a cause of concern. However, Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Monday said that no one in the Indian team had any “doubt about him”.
No one has any doubt about him (Dhoni). He is a legend and he knows what he is doing.Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Speaking about fellow pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar said that the Gujarat bowler has worked a lot on his action, which is paying dividends.
“Bumrah has a different action, which creates problems for the batsmen. He has improved a lot of things with his action. He had these yorkers and slower ones earlier as well but he has improved a lot."
Bhuvneshwar said that he has confidence in Bumrah that he can bowl well at the death.
"When you bowl with Bumrah, you have confidence that if you need to save runs later (at the death), if you bowl well, he will also do it with me."
India's new ball pair also communicate a lot and discuss strategies.
"Another good thing is that when the match begins, we talk to each other about the track, what strategy we can make. It's of great help for both the bowlers," he added.
He also said that despite losing the second T20 by 40 runs at Rajkot, the team was not missing a specialist fifth bowler.
You cannot blame bowlers for the loss. The other team is there to play as well. We have played good cricket against Australia and even when we toured the West Indies. The three-match series are very small and if you lose the first game and then tie it 1-1, you have to play a decider.
"As far as a fifth bowler is concerned, we have Hardik Pandya and others bowl part-time. We haven't missed an extra specialist bowler so far. If your main bowlers do not take a wicket or go for runs, then you miss a bowler. But we think a lot about team combination."
Asked who was the most difficult New Zealand batsman to bowl to, Kumar said Colin Munro had done particularly well but there were other quality batsmen too.
"Munro has troubled us but others as well. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill are good batsmen as well. We can't really pin-point one batsman when the team is playing really well.”
"Both series have come to the decider so Munro is the dangerous batsman but the whole team is a good one," he said.
He also said his batting in limited-overs games had improved a lot because of tips from batting coach Sanjay Bangar.
"I have batted well in Tests and always wanted to do well in ODIs too. The knock in Sri Lanka and the partnership with MS (Dhoni) gave me a lot of confidence. I bat according to the situation. A lot of credit for this must go to (Sanjay) Bangar," he said.
Log on to The Quint for full coverage of India’s series-decider against New Zealand on Tuesday.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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