Watch: Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowls a magical in-swinging delivery to castle Ireland captain in 1st T20I

It was a perfect pace bowler’s dismissal, sneaking in through the gate between bat and pad, and hitting the top of off-stump.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s value to the Indian team when he is on song is incalculable, and his return to form in recent T20Is would be presenting the fans and team management with much optimism for big upcoming tournaments later this year.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar against Andrew Balbirnie (Twitter)

Kumar, renowned as a high-quality powerplay bowler who can both take wickets and keep it tight in the first six overs, is coming off a player-of-the-series performance against South Africa in the recently-concluded series. He kept up his good form in the 1st T20I against Ireland at the Malahide Cricket Club in Dublin, bowling his three overs in a rain-shortened match for just 16 runs, keeping his economy below six and also picking up a wicket in the first over of the match.

It was an important and impressive wicket too, with Bhuvneshwar knocking over Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie’s off-stump with an in-swinger cutting in from a length, having set him up with an out-swinger the ball before. Having looked dangerous with away-swing in the balls before, with the ball darting around in overcast conditions, Bhuvneshwar showed his class and cleverness by allowing one to come back in just a touch, doing enough to beat Balbirnie all ends up.

It was a perfect pace bowler’s dismissal, sneaking in through the gate between bat and pad, and hitting the top of off-stump. Balbirnie had to walk off for a duck, and as Bhuvneshwar has done so many times before, he set India off to the perfect start to the match. It was his 34th scalp in the powerplay across all T20Is, taking him to outright first place above Samuel Badree and Chris Jordan, also having done it with an economy rate below six.

At present, Bhuvneshwar is playing like the gun-opening bowler Indian fans have known him to be, and after a couple of years plagued by injury and a worrisome drop in pace, he is getting back to his best both at the top of the innings and at the death with his control.

If he maintains his form, he is sure to form perhaps the greatest T20 pace battery in the world alongside Jasprit Bumrah when the time arrives for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.

Bhuvneshwar will likely lead the Indian attack again in the second T20I, taking place once again at the Malahide Cricket Club, on June 28.