Bhuvneshwar Kumar an absolute certainty for T20 WC: Wasim Jaffer

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Wasim Jaffer

Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer was mighty impressed with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar's performance in the opening T20 International against England, which the visitors won by 50 runs at Southampton on July 7.

While Hardik Pandya hogged the limelight with his all-round show of scoring a half century and taking four wickets to rip apart England's top order, Bhuvneshwar took the prized wicket of newly-appointed captain Jos Buttler, who was dismissed first ball for a duck.

Bhuvi kept swinging the ball both ways, conceding just 10 runs in his three overs with a superb economy rate of 3.33. Jaffer felt the bowler would make merry on any surface, not just the helpful wickets in England, and added that Bhuvi needs to be in the India squad for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November this year.

Also Read: IND vs ENG 2nd T20I: The Men in Blue seal the series at Edgbaston

"In international cricket, a bowler who swings the ball will have most of the batters struggling, especially with the ball you don't see many bowlers swinging it but Bhuvi is a great exponent of it," Jaffer was quoted as saying by royalchallengers.com.

"He's [Bhuvi] been getting it right since he has come back to the side and it was great to see him producing a good performance against a quality batting line-up. I don't see any doubt in my mind that he's going to be in the World Cup squad. He's an absolute certainty," he added.

Former England spinner, Ashley Giles echoed similar sentiments. "Will the ball swing as much in Australia? I don't know but if any body swings, it will be Bhuvi. He has inked his name into that World Cup squad," said Giles.

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