In today, out tomorrow: Story of Bhuvneshwar Kumar

"Never seen Bhuvi bowl that before, great skill! Wow," tweeted South Africa's pace bowling great Dale Steyn during South Africa's unsuccessful run chase against India in the first T20 International in Johannesburg on Sunday.

But, India's bowling hero, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was not introducing to the world his new skill, the knuckle ball, in India's 28-run win. He had been using his variations to a great extent, especially in limited-overs cricket that he has become a mainstay in the Indian line-up. Steyn was Bhuvneshwar's Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mate in IPL and hence the affinity to the Indian.

Bhuvneshwar said after picking up his maiden five-wicket haul in T20Is on Sunday that he has been working on some variations from last year's IPL, to surprise the batsmen. Steyn had missed the entire IPL 2017 due to injury and hence not seen Bhuvneshwar bowl the knuckle ball and other variations.

The 28-year-old right-arm medium-pacer from Meerut has to be constantly adding variety to his repertoire to be figuring in the India starting line-up, be it the Tests or the limited-overs. For, he has been a victim of the current think-tank's policy of 'horses for courses' and selecting players according to the conditions.

No matter however much Bhuvneshwar picks up wickets by the bagful and sets up India victories, he is unsure of being in the 11 for the next game.

He may have been superfluous in the Johannesburg Test last month in the first innings, or he may be India's best bowler like in the Cape Town Test at the start of the series, or for that matter exploiting the windy conditions to bowl India to victory in the second Test in Kolkata in 2016 against New Zealand, his place in playing XI for the next match is not guaranteed.

He was dropped for the third Test in Indore in 2016 and the second Test in Centurion that followed Cape Town last month just because the "conditions" did not merit his selection.

In fact, Bhuvneshwar was not the original choice to start in India's 11 in the Cape Town Test against the Proteas last month and only played because Ishant Sharma was unwell on the morning of the match. As it turned out, Bhuvneshwar emerged India's best bowler with a match haul of six wickets.

Though unsure of starting in the 11 despite the performances, Bhuvneshwar has been a team-man, not sulking but working on his skills and ready to deliver whenever called up to do so.

Bhuvneshwar is at that stage of his career where he has about five years of international cricket behind him. He has become one of the core members of Virat Kohli's fast bowling unit that the uncertainty of not playing the next game does not bother him any more.

But the man who has done what no other Indian bowler has done before – take at least one five-wicket haul in each of the three formats in international cricket – needed to be treated better and be assured of his place in the line-up.

Certainly India's first pacer to take a five-wicket haul in T20 Internationals, and the second after leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to the feat, deserved a place in the starting line-up in all the formats whenever India took the field in the international stage. Of course, with an eye on monitoring his workload.

Last year after the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, Kohli praised Bhuvneshwar's reverse swing abilities on a flat track. He had said about Bhuvneshwar: "You won't hesitate playing Bhuvi on any sort of wicket if he keeps bowling like that. Credit to him, he's working on that aspect of the bowling."

Yet, the reality is that Bhuvneshwar is picked only when the conditions suit his type of bowling. Even then, he has proven himself where there is less movement for the pacers. Of course, he has been dismissed to all parts of the ground when the conditions don't suit bowlers, not just his style of bowling. But then, which bowler is spared in such conditions?

Bhuvneshwar may feel hard done by the think-tank's extreme 'horses for courses' policy. If there is consistency in that, one can understand. But he is more often than made the scapegoat in the name of "conditions".

But it is his remarkable ability to deliver the goods whenever he is thrown the ball at and bowl India to victories and winning positions that keep him a way above the rest. And, he has all the qualities to be the leader of the pack.

And while he keeps performing despite the uncertainty, one only wonders what he can achieve if the think-tank gives him the confidence that he will be a regular in the team.