Bhuvneshwar Kumar

On October 4, 2017, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got engaged to his childhood friend Nupur Nagar, an engineer, at a private event in Greater Noida.

The two tied the knot on 23 November 2017 in Meerut, followed by a reception hosted for his friends from the Indian cricket team on November 30 in New Delhi.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was born on February 5, 1990, in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and has roots in Luharli village in Bulandshahr. His father, Kiran Pal Singh Mavi, is an ASP with the Uttar Pradesh Police, while his mother, Indresh Mavi, is a housewife.

He has an older sister named Rekha Adhana, who is seven years older than him. When he was 13, his sister took him to a cricket coaching center 7-8 kilometers away from their residence, and accompanied him there regularly till he was able to go by himself.

He practiced at the Victoria Club in Meerut, run by former UP wicketkeeper Vipin Vats. He was taught the finer points on using the new ball by bowling coach Sanjay Rastogi.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar began representing the Uttar Pradesh Ranji team in 2007, following his first-class debut at the age of 17 against Bengal. He suddenly came to limelight for becoming the first bowler to dismiss cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in first-class cricket in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy final and finished the season with 35 wickets.

Playing for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy in 2012, he made his maiden first-class hundred in the 2nd semi-final against North Zone to take his team to the final, avoiding certain defeat. Coming to bat at No.8 when the team was trailing by 232 runs, his 'Man of the Match'-winning knock consisted of three exceptional partnerships with Praveen Kumar, Murali Kartik and Rituraj Singh.

Following his spectacular show as an all-rounder in domestic cricket, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was selected to play in the first T20I match against Pakistan at Bengaluru on December 25, 2012. Defending a low total, he picked up three early wickets of Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, but India failed to save the match.

Thanks to his quality fast bowling with the new ball, he bagged a place in the playing eleven of the subsequent ODI series, He made his ODI debut against Pakistan on December 30 and dismissed Mohammad Hafeez with the very first ball he bowled.

On February 22, in his Test debut in the first match against Australia in the 2013 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he struggled to take wickets in a spin-friendly pitch. However, he showed his capacity as a batsman with a record 9th wicket partnership of 140 runs with M. S. Dhoni in the first Test and scored 38, the highest debut score at No.10.

In the first innings of the second Test against Australia, he took three important wickets of David Warner, Ed Cowan and Shane Watson, but went wicket-less in his short second innings spell. In the following Test, he failed to keep the batsmen under pressure in the first innings, but made up in the second innings taking the wickets of Shane Watson, David Warner and Steve Smith.

He was next included in the team for the Champions Trophy tournament held in England and Wales between 6 and 23 June 2013. For his six wickets at an average of 22.83 and an economy rate of 3.91, he was selected in the 'Team of the tournament' by ESPNcricinfo writers.