With seven wickets in the three-match T20I series Bhuvneshwar carved a piece of history for himself. He became the Indian pacer to bag most wickets in a bilateral T20I series, overhauling Barinder Sran, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.
New Delhi: Bhuvneshwar Kumar was a star in the Test series between India and South Africa, not just with the ball, but astonishingly well with the willow as well. Scoring 101 runs in four innings at an average of 33.66 and then picking up 10 wickets in the series, he ended the three-match Test series as the Player of the Series. It was complemented by a quieter ODI series where he picked up just two in four matches. And then he barged into the limelight again, as if waking up from a nice long rest, and scalp seven in the final leg of the tour of South Africa. With seven wickets in the three-match T20I series, Bhuvneshwar carved a piece of history for himself. He became the Indian pacer to bag most wickets in a bilateral T20I series, overhauling Barinder Sran Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.
In the 3rd T20I, Bhuvi gave India the first breakthrough by dismissing opener Reeza Hendricks off a knuckleball. And in the end, he got rid of debutant Christiaan Jonker, who had glimmered much hope amongst the home fans with his blazing 49, off the last delivery of the match. The pacer thus ended the series with seven wickets in three matches at an average of 9.57, which took him past his teammates Barinder Sran (vs Zimbabwe in 2016) , Jasprit Bumrah (vs Australia in 2016) and Hardik Pandya (vs Sri Lanka in 2017), who had all scalped six each.
Bhuvi, however, ain't the highest amongst Indian bowlers. Ravichandran Ashwin's tally of nine wickets against Sri Lanka in 2015-16 season still sits atop.
While the lanky pacer from Uttar Pradesh wasn't the favourites among the pace department when India landed at Wanderers for the third time on this tour, his unswerving efforts with the white ball brought colours into India's struggle against South Africa in the first T20I. He picked up JJ Smuts and JP Duminy in his first spell and then returned at the death to crumble the middle order line up, finishing with career-best figures.
He went wicketless in the second game that saw the South African upsurge and eventual levelling of the T20I series taking the tour to a thrilling decider at where it had all begun - Cape Town.