In Bumrah’s absence, Bhuvi gets down to perfecting Yorkers

Adelaide, January 14

Jasprit Bumrah is India’s resident yorker specialist but in his absence, the team management has entrusted the task of firing in the toe-crushers on his new-ball partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Bhuvneshwar was seen bowling in the nets keeping a shoe at the base of the stumps in order to perfect his yorker ahead of the second ODI against Australia here on Tuesday.

The UP seamer, who rarely bowls yorkers like Bumrah, is trying to add the delivery in his repertoire in order to avoid getting hit in the slog overs.

“The skills (required to bowl yorkers) are also different. I was practising bowling yorkers at the shoes, and I was practising for the end (slog) overs to take wickets or block some runs,” Bhuvneshwar told mediapersons here.

“This (keeping shoes on the pitch) is something that I have been doing for some time,” he added.

The seamer said he wasn’t practising yorkers as he wasn’t playing Test matches and also because the delivery is rarely used in longest format.

“I didn’t practice that for almost a month now because in Tests, we hardly needed that. And I didn’t play a match. Going into an ODI or T20I series, you need that (yorker) thing. So I was practising that,” he said.

The yorker becomes all the more necessary in the death as blockhole deliveries or slower ones work with old balls (two new balls being used in ODIs).

“The skills needed are totally different (with new and old balls). You are trying to swing the new-ball and take wickets. With the old ball, you are looking to bowl yorkers or slower balls. But they are both difficult.

“When you are bowling with a new ball, there are only two fielders outside the circle. With the old ball, batsmen don’t care how many guys are outside the circle.” PTI