Bhuvneshwar Kumar is in the midst of a sensational IPL season, but is it enough to get him back in the reckoning with the Indian team? Sarah Waris evaluates.
There is something almost old-fashioned about Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling this season. In an IPL where fast bowlers are often reduced to survival, where every missed yorker and every predictable length can disappear, he has found value in being almost stubbornly simple. Hit the right area. Do it again. Make the batter take the risk.
At 36, after a career that he has had to keep bending around injury, Bhuvneshwar is the Purple Cap leader for this season with 26 wickets at 18.15 and an economy rate of 8.00, the best among all bowlers with more than 15 wickets in 2026.
Virat Kohli summed up Bhuvneshwar’s season well on RCB’s podcast, saying his success had not come from “banana inswingers” or “banana outswingers”. In other words, this has not been about extravagant swing or anything spectacular. The movement has still been there, but it has worked because of the length it has come from: awkward enough for batters to be unsure whether to come forward, stay back, or simply survive.
His spell against the Delhi Capitals showed exactly what Kohli meant. Bhuvneshwar bowled three overs in a row with the new ball, took 3-5, did not concede a boundary, and sent down 15 dots in 18 legal balls as DC were bowled out for 75. Thirteen of his 18 balls were on a length, costing only three runs and bringing two wickets, five edges, two no-shots and 11 dots. A late inswinging yorker bowled Sahil Parakh, Tristan Stubbs edged to slip while pushing away from his body, and Axar Patel was caught behind two balls after being beaten outside off.
The season’s data follows a similar pattern. Of his 354 balls, 168 have been on a length, nearly half his deliveries, and they have brought 13 wickets at an economy rate of 7.46. That is the area Kohli was referring to: not full enough to drive with certainty, not short enough to pull comfortably, and not loose enough to line up early. From those good-length deliveries, Bhuvneshwar has drawn 29 edges and 12 play-and-misses, an edge or miss once every 4.1 deliveries.
His back-of-a-length balls have also been effective, going at 6.58 while drawing 15 edges or play-and-misses from 62 balls. The yorker has remained useful too, conceding only 30 runs from 33 balls. The fuller length has been more expensive, going at 10.80. The split makes the broader pattern clear: Bhuvneshwar has been at his best when he has stayed on a length or just short of it, rather than overpitching to the point that batters can drive.
Bhuvneshwar and India’s powerplay question
For Bhuvneshwar, any India conversation has to start with the new ball. His best T20I work was built around that phase: swing when it was available, accuracy when it was not, and the ability to get through the first six overs without letting the innings run away. Across his T20I career, he picked up 90 wickets, of which 47 were in the powerplay at an economy rate of 5.73. In 2022, his last full year in India’s T20I plans, he had 21 powerplay wickets at 19.3, with an economy rate of 5.63. For context, bowlers globally went at 7.13 in the powerplay that year, with wickets coming every 25.12 balls.
That is what makes his IPL 2026 more relevant than a normal purple patch. The question is not whether Bhuvneshwar is still the same bowler India had in 2022, but whether the skill that once made him so valuable has held up. This season suggests it has. He has bowled 192 balls in the powerplay, taken 16 wickets and gone at 7.03 an over. More than half of those deliveries have been dots. With the new ball, he has not only kept the scoring down but also continued to create wicket-taking pressure.
Among bowlers to have sent down at least 60 balls in the powerplay this season, only Kagiso Rabada has taken more wickets than Bhuvneshwar’s 16, but Rabada has gone at 9.52 an over. Among Indians, Mohammed Siraj has 13 wickets at 7.78, and Mohammed Shami has nine at 7.67. Arshdeep Singh, already part of India’s T20I plans, has seven at 9.29. The younger Indian seam options are still works in progress: Prince Yadav has seven wickets at 8.68, Anshul Kamboj five at 10.30, Rasikh Salam five at 8.56, and Mohsin Khan four at 7.79.
So, should Bhuvneshwar return to the T20I side?
Despite his performances this year, the selection call is not straightforward. Bhuvneshwar will be 38 by the time the next T20 World Cup begins in 2028. He no longer plays the full domestic calendar. India also have to think about how many games they want to give the younger quicks in the next two years, especially with the tournament set for Australia and New Zealand, where seam options should remain relevant.
But that is also why this should be a bilateral question before it becomes a World Cup question. India do not have to decide today whether Bhuvneshwar should be part of their 2028 squad. They have to decide whether a bowler performing this role so well in the IPL deserves to be tested again while they are still shaping their options.
There is room for that conversation because the alternatives do not make his case redundant. Siraj has been strong with the new ball this season, but his T20I role has never been as settled as his Test one. Shami’s powerplay numbers are solid, but the Indian team has seemingly moved on from him. Arshdeep remains important because of his left-arm angle, but his powerplay returns in this IPL have been expensive. The younger quicks may grow into the role, but on current evidence, few have matched Bhuvneshwar’s combination of wickets and economy in the first six overs consistently.
Bumrah sits outside that comparison in some ways. He is India’s best bowler and can be used almost anywhere, which is also why teams often move him around rather than tying him only to the new ball.
Bhuvneshwar’s case is more specific. If India want a bowler whose primary job is to take the new ball, control the powerplay and challenge batters through length rather than pace alone, this IPL has given them a reason to look again.
That does not mean picking him based on nostalgia. It means recognising a role that still has value. Bhuvneshwar’s age is a real complication, and two years is a long time in T20 cricket. But it should not close the door before India have tested whether this version of him can still work at the international level. On current evidence, he has done enough to be more than a name from the past.
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