India seam bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar said he is practising to perfect the yorker ahead of the second ODI against Australia in Adelaide on Tuesday.
Kumar went for 66 runs in his 10 overs in the first ODI in Sydney and looked rusty after being out of the team for most of 2018 following long-standing back issues. He admitted missing so much cricket had affected his rhythm as he first looked to increase his workload coming into the ODI series. Now comfortable with his fitness, the seamer is working on his precision while bowling yorkers, placing a par of shoes at the crease during training to improve his accuracy.
“The skills required to bowl yorkers are different. I was practising bowling yorkers at a shoe, and I was practising for the end overs to take wickets or block runs,” Bhuvneshwar said.
Here's a bowling drill for your next training session! #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Ans4Zdnk8D
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 14, 2019
“This (shoes on the pitch) is something that I have been doing for some time. I didn’t practice that for almost a month now because in Tests, we hardly needed that. Going into an ODI or T20I series, you need that (yorker training),” he added.
The 28-year-old added India was treating the second match of the three-game series as a knockout after falling 1-0 behind.
“We’ve been in this situation before in India, so we know it’s not impossible to win the series,” Bhuvneshwar said.
“It’s a kind of knock-out for us. We can’t afford to lose this match. We’re not thinking anything different from how we’ve been thinking for the last couple of years. We just want to win the match and everyone is positive for that.”
