Bhuvneshwar reaps the rewards of hard work with T20I rankings leap

Bhuvneshwar Kumar enjoyed a wonderful tour of South Africa. The seamer was one of his side's stars across all three formats as India bounced back from defeats in the opening two Test matches to claim the ODI series 5-1 and T20I series 2-1.

And while it was mainly his contributions with the bat that turned heads in the final two Test matches, it was his highly-skillful bowling that took buckets of wickets and won plaudits aplenty with the white ball.

Known primarily for his mastery of swing bowling with the red ball, Bhuvneshwar has worked tirelessly in the nets to diversify his game and add more strings to his bow. The results were there for all to see in the T20I series as he followed his match-winning 5/24 – his maiden five-wicket haul in T20s – in the first game with a nerveless 2/24 in the final match to seal the series and the Player of the Series award.

As well as the personal award, Bhuvneshwar's performances saw him become the biggest mover in the MRF Tyres ICC T20I Bowler Rankings, jumping a whopping 20 places up to 12th place. He is now the fourth-highest ranked seam bowler in the world.

"I really enjoyed this tour, I was very happy with my preparation," he said after the final match at Newlands, Cape Town, on Saturday.

"First of all thanks to the IPL – it has made an Indian bowler a thinking bowler. It is important not to give too many runs in the first six overs. I always try to keep it simple. I hardly get these kind of wickets in India and I enjoyed this."

The influence of the Indian Premier League was evident for India in the series. Bhuvneshwar, Jasprit Bumrah – who himself sits fifth in the ICC Bowling Rankings – Shardul Thakur and Hardik Pandya all looked supremely confident in executing their game-plans, even when under pressure.

Opening the bowling, Bhuvneshwar sticks to a simple strategy. With a new ball in hand, he utilises the same skills as in Test matches, finding any swing available and bowling to his field. Batsmen tend to struggle to get him away. In the final T20I, with South Africa chasing 173 to win, Bhuvneshwar had figures of 1/13 after bowling his opening three overs.

His ability to join up dot balls is invaluable to his side. Over the three-match series in South Africa, Bhuvneshwar bowled 66 balls, with 27 of them conceding no run – an impressive 40%.

But while he says he "tries to keep it simple", some would argue otherwise. Like most successful T20 bowlers, the 28-year-old has a bag of tricks to call on. His ability to switch effortlessly between full-pace, off-cutter, leg-cutter and most impressively the knuckleball, makes him the complete package. He is successful at the top of an innings and at the death.

His 5/24 in the first T20I in Johannesburg owed a lot to his slower balls. JJ Smuts perished to a knuckleball up front before Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen and Chris Morris were all caught trying to go big down the ground at the death.

These results don't happen by accident. Bhuvneshwar's success is all down to preparation off the pitch.

“I enjoy bowling in tough situations," he explained recently. "The knuckleball is something I have been working on for almost a year. Nowadays, you need to figure out new ways to get wickets.”

As South Africa will attest, Bhuvneshwar has certainly worked out how to get wickets.