Most T20I wickets in powerplay: An Indian fast bowler has been consistently picking wickets with the new ball in T20Is.
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Since the start of 2021, India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has won three Player of the Match awards in the shortest format. Batter Suryakumar Yadav is the only other Indian cricketer to have won three T20I match awards in this period.
Kumar, who has been playing T20Is for almost a decade now, had won a lone such award since his debut in 2012 till the end of 2020. Having regained his position in the Indian T20I squad after suffering multiple injuries and undergoing a bad patch across formats, Kumar’s stellar comeback should aid him in boarding the plane to Australia for ICC World Twenty20 2022 later this year.
If Kumar manages to extend his streak of picking early wickets with the new ball, expect him to open the bowling during the world event for picking wickets in the powerplay is a niche and uncommon skill which comes in very handy in T20Is.
“When the ball swings, you enjoy bowling. But if I am not wrong it has not swung much in England in the past few years. If the ball swings it motivates you to do well and I am confident right now,” Kumar had told Sky Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony of the second T20I against England in Birmingham yesterday.
Bowling figures of 6-1-25-4 across two outings in this series doesn’t make Kumar the highest wicket-taker but no one else has made an impact like him. While the right-arm bowler had dismissed England captain Jos Buttler for a golden duck in the first T20I in Southampton, he managed to dismiss opening batter Jason Roy on the first ball of the innings on Saturday.
Most T20I wickets in powerplay (table updated on September 8, 2022)
| Bowler | Innings | Balls | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar (IND) | 74 | 960 | 901 | 43 | 5.63 |
| Tim Southee (NZ) | 71 | 804 | 995 | 34 | 7.42 |
| Samuel Badree (WI) | 50 | 726 | 762 | 33 | 6.29 |
| Shakib Al Hasan (BAN) | 61 | 534 | 592 | 29 | 6.65 |
| Mustafizur Rahman (BAN) | 62 | 510 | 597 | 27 | 7.02 |
I am probably going overboard with these Bhuvneshwar Kumar tweets of late but numbers will tell you that the world has never seen a greater Powerplay bowler in T20 cricket and no one talks about that.
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) July 9, 2022
Readers must note that Kumar is the highest wicket-taker in powerplay in both T20Is and T20s.
