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Bhuvneshwar Kumar eyeing Test comeback after impressive white-ball series against England

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was coming off after a long injury lay off and there were doubts about if he will be able to provide penetrations to the Indian bowling line up in absence of Jasprit Bumrah.

Now, after a win in both T20I and ODI series against England where he played a crucial role, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is more ambitious and has his eyes set on making a come back in the longest format. 

He will head to the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League as the premier bowler for the Sunrisers Hyderabad but the pacer is not losing sight of what lies ahead of the league. He said that all the preparations and training he will go through in the IPL starting April 09, will be done keeping in mind his own target with respect to Test cricket.

"Whatever preparation happens from my side will happen with red-ball cricket in mind. That's different from what will happen in team selections, but my training and workload during the IPL will happen with Test cricket in mind. I want to play Test cricket going forward," Bhuvneshwar said in the post-match press conference after 3rd ODI against England.

However, he has learnt the art of staying in the present a hard way as a lot of plannings and preparation keeping an eye on the future has not served him well. 

Injuries have been his recurrent enemy and the value of staying fit for a longer period of time is high on Bhuvneshwar’s agenda going forward after the IPL when India will embark on a long tour of England to play the World Test Championship final against New Zealand and then a five-match Test series against England.

"I don't decide on the long term future. Whenever I have in the past, things haven't gone my way, whether it's due to injury or form. Workload management is something I will focus on and the team management also tries and does its best. I was unfit for a long time, so I realized that fitness is something I have to maintain if I want to play regular cricket. I know that there's an England tour in front along with other series, so I will try to keep myself fit," Bhuvneshwar added.

Bhuvi went on to play all five T20Is and three ODIs against England and when he was asked if he got out what he wanted out of those matches, Bhuvneshwar said he has got mixed results. He tasted success in terms of staying fit for the entire length of the series but said that improvements in terms of variations in his bowling are still a work in progress.

"Yes and no. I got what I wanted in these games, but there's always something to improve on like it could be variations or fitness. As a team what we wanted to get, what we wanted to achieve, we got it. If you ask me individually, there's always something... could be variations or the knuckle ball that I've been wanting to improve," Bhuvneshwar added.

Bhuvneshwar was on song in the series decider ODI against England and was partnered well by Shardul Thakur at the other end. The man from UP hailed Shardul Thakur for putting his hands up during tough phases of a game where the ball does not swing or pitches have not helped bowling to great extent. Bhuvi spoke highly of Shardul’s improvement over time and credited him for producing a match-changing bowling spell in the series finale against England.

"Today, he performed really well. He had come in as the second change bowler when the ball doesn't swing at all and there was a lot of batting remaining too. So it's tough for any bowler to come in there and pick up wickets. If you ask me, he changed the entire match completely. What role generally spinners play, today we played one less spinner, he gave us the breakthrough and put us in a position where we could win from,” Bhuvneshwar said of Shardul Thakur.


"He's improved a lot as a bowler be it in his batting or bowling. That's what a team needs, for a player to contribute with the bat or ball. He's done that since the T20s and now he's done it here. He's contributed a lot. You can see a difference in his game; not difference, but improvement. And his confidence is right up there too. Just how he's performed in the T20s or now."

The third ODI of the series against England marked an end of a long season of Indian cricket that started with a tour of Australia right after the last edition of the IPL. Now, Indian superstars including Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be sweating it out in the cash-rich league before putting their Indian jersey back in June.

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