Hailing from a place called Davangere in Karnataka, Vinay Kumar is a medium pacer who knows his strengths. With a short run-up to the crease, he generates decent pace and his stock ball is the in-swinger. He is more of a hit-the-seam sort of bowler and gets an awkward bounce from a back of a length area. He possesses a mean short ball and he can surprise the batsmen with his pace sometimes. Of late, he has developed the slinging round-arm delivery ala Malinga and one such delivery got Chris Gayle out in the 2011 IPL season. He is popularly called as the Davangere Express.