Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has fond memories of Lord's and is hoping that his team will once again etch its name in history by playing in the ICC Cricket Men’s World Cup 2019 final on July 14 at the famed ground. While Bhuvneshwar, during the 2014 tour to England, powered India's first win at Lord's in 24 years taking 6/82 and scoring a memorable 52 under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy, India had won their first Cricket World Cup on June 25, 1983, by defeating the then two-time defending champions West Indies.
"I have been here two or three times but I always like coming back to play in England. It would mean a lot to get to go back to Lord’s for the final of the World Cup. Lord’s is always a special place, not just for me but for any cricketer. I have very good memories there, so if we reach the final it will be a very big moment for not just me but for the whole team," ICC quoted Bhuvneshwar as saying.
The 2014 tour of England was Bhuvneshwar's first overseas series as India player and he once again hopes to provide the firepower to his team in the quadrennial event.
But India's performance during the ICC World Cup 2019 warm-up matches has been a mixed bag. The World Number 2 One Day International team lost to New Zealand in its first warm-up match at Kennington Oval, London, won by six wickets but went on to register a big win by 95 runs against Bangladesh at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, three days later.
Bhuvneshwar had proved expensive against New Zealand, giving away 27 runs in four overs but he made amends against Bangladesh by conceding just 19 runs in five overs. He, however, failed to pick up any wicket in the two warm-up matches.
He called India's win against Bangladesh a "really good performance". "It was a really good performance. We got everything we wanted out of the match; when it comes to batting, bowling and fielding. You don’t think much about the results when it comes to practice matches, you focus on what you can get out of the game. You get a lot of confidence from having that score on the board. Chasing 350 down is a very big task. There’s always extra belief when you go to bowl. You have the liberty to try and extra few things. In these kinds of wickets, these are flat batting wickets so you want to keep it tight and let the batsmen make mistakes," he told ICC.
India play their first match of the ICC World Cup 2019 against South Africa who have both their matches of the tournaments till now. While the South Africans were given a massive drubbing by hosts England in the tournament opener on May 30 by 104 runs, they found Bangladesh too hot to handle in their second match, losing it by 21 runs.
