Is Bhuvneshwar Kumar playing IPL 2020: SRH pacer ruled out of IPL 2020 due to thigh injury

Is Bhuvneshwar Kumar playing IPL 2020: The senior pacer from Sunrisers Hyderabad had missed their last match against Mumbai Indians.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the rare fast bowlers to have captained his team in the Indian Premier League. Having spent his first three seasons at Pune Warriors India, the right-arm bowler has been with Sunrisers Hyderabad since 2014.

In 91 T20s for Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar has picked 112 wickets at an average of 22.63, an economy rate of 7.40 and a strike rate of 18.35. His seven-year old stint at SRH also witnessed him becoming one of the best Indian pacers in T20s.

Is Bhuvneshwar Kumar playing IPL 2020?

Expected to play a crucial role for Sunrisers in the ongoing 13th season of the IPL, Bhuvneshwar had suffered an injury while bowling the penultimate over against Chennai Super Kings.

In what started as a thigh injury which denied him a spot in the Playing XI against Mumbai Indians yesterday, it has now ruled Bhuvneshwar out of IPL 2020. While Sunrisers are yet to release an official statement, reports are doing the round regarding Bhuvneshwar missing the rest of IPL 2020.

“Bhuvneshwar Kumar is out of IPL with a thigh muscle injury. It is probably a grade two or three injury, which could mean that he would be out for at least six to eight weeks. It might effectively rule him out of India’s tour of Australia,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

In four IPL 2020 matches, the 30-year old bowler had picked three wickets at an average of 33, an economy rate of 6.98 and a strike rate of 28.33.

Bhuvneshwar, who had last played for India during the home T20I series against West Indies last year, has missed a fair amount of international cricket due to frequent injuries in the recent past.

While Bhuvneshwar was recalled into the ODI team for the South Africa series in March, the series ended up getting postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One awaits an official statement to analyze Bhuvneshwar’s chances of making it to the tour of Australia.