Taking your first international wicket is always special, but doing it in a way that becomes your signature move? Now, that’s a rare flex. Enter Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the undisputed king of sending stumps on a scenic flight. His love for rattling timber is so strong that he made his debut wicket across all three international formats—and even the IPL—the exact same way: bowled.
It all started in 2012 when a young Bhuvi burst onto the international scene in an ODI against Pakistan. His first victim? Mohammad Hafeez, whose stumps went flying in a way that made even physics take notes. Later that year, in the shortest format of the game, he decided to keep the theme going, castling Nasir Jamshed for his maiden T20I wicket. Then came 2013, when he marked his Test arrival by making David Warner watch his off-stump cartwheel.
And if you think this was a new trick he picked up along the way, think again. Rewind to his IPL debut in 2011, and guess what? He introduced himself by uprooting Shaun Marsh’s stumps. At this point, you have to wonder: does Bhuvi just have a personal vendetta against the woodwork?
While pacers often dream of intimidating batters with fiery bouncers or toe-crushing yorkers, Bhuvi’s subtle swing and pinpoint accuracy have turned the simple “bowled” dismissal into an art form. There’s something deeply satisfying about a delivery that sneaks past a batter’s defenses and sends the stumps flying, and Bhuvi has mastered that thrill like no other.
So, the next time you see those wooden sticks taking flight, don’t be surprised if Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the artist behind the masterpiece.
