Born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a right-arm medium-fast bowler who can also be an effective lower-order right-handed batsman in the Indian Premier League. Since making his debut in 2011, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the few fast bowlers blessed with swinging balls in both directions. Because of this, he is also known as the King of Swing Cricket. 35-year-old Bhuvneshwar Kumar has joined forces with the RCB team in the IPL 2025 season.
Here is an overview of Bhuvi's IPL 2025 profile -
In 2011, Bhuvneshwar Kumar played his first IPL debut match with the now-defunct Pune Warriors against Punjab Kings at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium. In his IPL debut match, Bhuvneshwar impressed everyone with his two scalps for 14 runs with an economy rate of 4.67 in 3 overs. Although he did sign up with the RCB in 2009 first. But he didn’t get any opportunity to play for the two seasons with the franchise.
Throughout his IPL career, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Pune Warriors, and Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the latest edition of IPL, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has returned to his former team, RCB. Previously, he was part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad until 2024.
For the 2025 IPL season, Bhuvneshwar Kumar once again represented his former team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, whom he represented in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. During the Mega Auction, the Bengaluru franchise had a tough contest with Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants to win their Ex-player back. At last, RCB won the bidding war and bought Buvneshwar Kumar’s services for Rs 10.75 crore.
From 2009 to 2010, RCB held onto Buvneshwar Kumar and released him in the following 2011 season. After that, Pune Warriors took Bhuneshwar Kumar in from the 2011 to 2013 IPL seasons. Then Bhuvneshwar Kumar joined the Hyderabad-based franchise SRH, with whom he spent 10 IPL Seasons.
By moving to RCB, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has significantly increased his IPL income, which is way more than his previous salary with the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Compared to his debut season's salary, Bhuvi has shown growth in his IPL career. He was first signed up by the RCB for his base of Rs 6 Lakhs in 2009. He then provided his services to the Pune Warriors for his base price of Rs 20 Lakhs in 2011. It was the Sunrisers who held him for a decade until 2025.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is known for his deadly swing ball, which he can deliver in both directions. Apart from his swinging skills, Bhuvneshwar’s line and length are pretty straight and with variants of speed from slow to fast. His slow deliveries often confuse attacking batters, which is a clever technique in the limited overs. This made him one of the leading wicket scorers for the Sunrisers in the IPL for many seasons.
During his IPL career, Bhuvneshwar Kumar achieved many accolades, including two-time Purple Cap winner consecutively (2016 and 2017), one of the top all-time IPL wicket takers, and a specialist in the powerplay & death overs.
Here are the overall batting and bowling stats of Bhuvneshwar Kumar from his IPL career.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is undoubtedly a brilliant bowler with his swing technique, an excellent bowler in the death overs, and the captain's favourite power play pack. However, few know that he is also a lower-order batter with a good sense of handling the bat under pressure.
In his decade-plus IPL career, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has got few moments to showcase his batting skills. In the previous season of IPL 2024, Bhuvi played 16 matches while scoring 23 runs with an average of 7.67 and a strike rate of 79.31.
Below is the table that shows all of Bhuvneshwar Kumar's IPL batting stats from the 2011 to 2025 season.
The swing master Bhuvnehwar Kumar has been one of the top performers in the IPL, taking the most fifers in IPL history. In fact, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of those few bowlers who has taken a fifer in every cricket format, including Test, ODI, T20I, IPL, and domestic.
2-time purple cap winner Bhuvneshwar Kumar has impressive IPL bowling stats. Especially in 2016 and 2017 when he scalped the most 23 and 26 wickets simultaneously for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and became the top leading wicket taker for those seasons.
Below is the table that shows all of Bhuvneshwar Kumar's IPL bowling stats from the 2011 to 2025 season.
In his outstanding IPL career, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has played 178 matches and scalped 183 wickets, including his 5/19 best bowling figure. He also scored 307 runs, including 27 highest scores in the IPL.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has taken 183 wickets with an average of 27.17, and an economy rate of 7.55 in 178 matches in the IPL. During his IPL career, he has recorded a fifer twice in the IPL, once in 2017 of 5/19 and second in 2023 of 5/30.
Over the years, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has set an image for the most consistent wicket-taker. His average economy rate is 7.55, which is hard to maintain, especially for a fast bowler. His best economy rate was 6.5 recorded in 2013 for the 16 matches he played that season.
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