Hyderabad, May 2:
Seasoned Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said he has reached a stage in his career where team success takes precedence over individual milestones.
The 36-year-old, who is currently the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, returned figures of 3 for 28, his fifth three-wicket haul of the season, in RCB’s four-wicket loss to Gujarat Titans, taking him to the top of the bowling chart.
While the performance earned him the Purple Cap, Bhuvneshwar downplayed its significance, emphasising a shift in priorities that comes with experience.
“It’s good that I got the Purple Cap. But I think I have come out of that time where I want to achieve something individually,” Bhuvneshwar said at the post-match press conference.
“Of course, I want to achieve something, but now it’s more of a team. I’m not young anymore. Of course, when you’re young, you want to win those awards, and it comes when you do well.
“But when you want to work towards the team’s goal, and you get an individual award or reward, you feel good. But honestly, I’m just trying my best. Getting confidence from the management. That’s all I can say,” he added.
Put in to bat, RCB endured a rare batting collapse and were bowled out for 155, a total that proved insufficient in a tournament dominated by high-scoring chases.
Bhuvneshwar acknowledged that chasing has become easier this season across venues.
“If you look at this IPL, chasing is a bit easier in any ground because the way wicket behaves and dew comes. So, yes, it could be different.
“But yeah, we didn’t win the toss. We were asked to bat first. We tried our best in bowling. So now the result is that we lost. That’s all.”
Defending a a modest total, Bhuvneshwar said RCB’s strategy was to attack and take wickets rather than contain runs.
“If you look at the scenario, there was some help for seamers, and we had Romario (Shepeherd), third seamer. So, we wanted to take a chance.
“And Suyash (Sharma) is someone who is not easy to pick. So, we wanted to get wickets as quick as possible. So, that’s the reason he didn’t bowl.
“We couldn’t have won the match by defending runs. We could have won by taking wickets, and the bowlers who bowled were the best bowlers to get those wickets,” he added.
He also admitted that the batting unit, featuring the likes of Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Tim David and skipper Rajat Patidar, had an off day.
“Look it’s a long tournament 14 matches. You cannot be perfect in each and every match in any department the way we have batted in the whole tournament it’s been good we have scored 200 we have scored more than 200.
“I think it’s about complementing each other yes we were not up to the mark with the bat it happens. I mean sometimes we give 200 runs but batsmen never complains they go and chase it out so it was our duty to try our best and then we did what we could.”
For Gujarat Titans, West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder returned with figures of 2/29 while also take three catches. He also scored 12 runs with the bat to be adjudged the player of the match.
“When we were pursuing Jason at the auction, it was with the mind to him being able to fulfil both roles — the bat and the ball. So he does offer us exactly that,” GT Director of Cricket Vikram Solanki.
“His numbers, if you take a look over the last sort of calendar year and perhaps a little bit longer than that, his numbers at five and six have been quite outstanding.
“And that has come about because he, of course, has all of the ability that you need. Physically, a strong guy, has great reach, leverage as far as the bat is concerned, so all the technicalities are covered off,” he added.