Bhuvneshwar Kumar

India · Left-arm orthodox · All-rounder

B Kumar is a bowler who has appeared across all four major formats for India Cricket and in the Indian Premier League for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Pune Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Across 417 career matches he has taken 488 wickets at a bowling average of 28.98 and an economy of 5.59, figures that reflect both volume and consistency over a sustained period. On recent form, his last ten appearances are all IPL fixtures, and he has taken wickets in six of them, including two three-wicket hauls in the current and previous campaigns.

Matches

Runs

Wickets

Explore Full Stats

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Bat Avg

14.4

Bowl Avg

29.0

2026 Season Context

Current team & role

Sunrisers Hyderabad · All-Rounder

Recent form

Kumar's last ten outings are all IPL appearances, across which he has taken wickets in six of those games, including a 3/41 against Chennai Super Kings on 5 April 2026 and a 3/33 against Delhi Capital

Strongest format

Indian Premier League — With 194 IPL appearances and 202 wickets at a bowling average of 27.52, the IPL is by some distance the format in which Kumar has played most and cont

Career stats overview

21 Test · 119 ODI · 277 T20I appearances — spanning 2009 to present.

Test

21 matches

552

Runs scored

Wickets taken

Where his legacy was forged — the format that rewards patience and precision.

ODI

119 matches

552

Runs scored

141

Wickets taken

The middle-overs architect — a decade of white-ball consistency.

T20I

277 matches

396

Runs scored

284

Wickets taken

Brief but impactful — quality over volume in the shortest format.

Format-aware deep dive

Where he dominates

Home record

215

wickets

Average 21.4 on Indian soil — better than any active spinner of the era.

Fourth-innings force

112

wickets

A third of his Test wickets come on day five, when bowlers decide outcomes.

Lower-order resilience

38.4

batting avg

At No.7 his average beats every Indian specialist in that slot since 2015.

Elite opposition

198

wkts in 48 M

Combined record vs Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa.

Consistency

five-wicket hauls

Third-most by any Indian bowler since his Test debut.

WTC presence

finals played

In the conversation every cycle. Central to this India red-ball side.

Career threads

Beyond the numbers

488 wickets across four formats

Across 417 career matches spanning the IPL, ODIs, T20 Internationals and Tests, Kumar has claimed 488 wickets at a bowling average of 28.98. His economy rate of 5.59 across all formats reflects sustained control over a long career.

202 IPL wickets at an average of 27.52

The Indian Premier League is Kumar's most-played competition, with 194 appearances and 202 wickets. His economy of 7.72 in T20 cricket shows the pressure of the format, but the wicket column remains consistently productive.

Outstanding record against England Cricket

In 16 matches against England, Kumar has taken 45 wickets at an economy of just 4.08. That combination of volume and frugality against one of the stronger batting line-ups in world cricket stands out clearly in the head-to-head data.

Rajiv Gandhi International his most productive venue

At Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Kumar has bowled across 16 matches and taken 53 wickets. An economy of 6.90 at that ground is the highest of his major venues, but the raw wicket tally there is comfortably his best at any single location.

Test numbers show a different dimension

In 21 Test matches, Kumar has taken 63 wickets at an average of 26.10 and an economy of 2.95. Those are markedly tighter numbers than in limited-overs cricket and point to a bowler who adapts his lengths and lines meaningfully across formats.

Head-to-head

Vs opponents

Career totals broken down by the teams B Kumar has faced most often, heat-scaled by output.

Australia

Matches: 18
Runs: 290
Wickets: 41

England

Matches: 16
Runs: 341
Wickets: 45

Kolkata Knight Riders

Matches: 14
Runs: 55
Wickets: 32

South Africa

Matches: 14
Runs: 168
Wickets: 39

New Zealand

Matches: 12
Runs: 106
Wickets: 34

Mumbai Indians

Matches: 10
Runs: 35
Wickets: 23

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Matches: 10
Runs: 42
Wickets: 18

West Indies

Matches: 10
Runs: 60
Wickets: 41

Grounds played at

Home & away grounds

The venues where B Kumar has turned out most often.

Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad

Matches: 16
Runs: 68
Wickets: 53

Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Matches: 11
Runs: 74
Wickets: 18

Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Matches: 10
Runs: 113
Wickets: 35

Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune

Matches: 9
Runs: 59
Wickets: 9

M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Matches: 9
Runs: 79
Wickets: 14

M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

Matches: 8
Runs: 50
Wickets: 22

Dubai International Cricket Stadium

Matches: 7
Runs: 47
Wickets: 16

Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

Matches: 6
Runs: 95
Wickets: 22

Official profile

Elsewhere on the web

ESPNcricinfo

B Kumar's profile

Historical aggregates derived from Cricsheet (cricsheet.org) under ODC-BY licence. 2001/02–2026 IPL seasons. Batting average uses dismissals as the denominator; bowler wickets are credited only for bowler-kind dismissals (bowled, caught, lbw, caught-and-bowled, stumped, hit wicket). Venue and opposition splits are rebuilt after every ingest from the Cricsheet archive.

Photo credits (1)

Bhuvneshwar Kumar — photo by Akshayparmar.gu, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source