Bhuvneshwar Kumar recalled to India T20 squad after four-year hiatus for New Zealand series - 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓔𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓸𝓻

Veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has earned a long-awaited return to India’s T20I setup nearly four years after his last international appearance, following his impressive performances in the IPL.

Veteran India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Tuesday returned to the national side nearly four years since his last appearance, for the upcoming five-match T20I series to be played in New Zealand later this month.

The 36-year-old Meerut-born Bhuvneshwar, who has played a stellar role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s back-to-back IPL titles with 17 wickets in the last season, tormented the best in the business with swing and seam movement in powerplay overs.

However, Bhuvneshwar’s comeback didn’t happen due to the presence of Ajit Agarkar, who didn’t believe in looking back despite performances.

It is understood that Central Zone selector Rudra Pratap Singh never found much support when it came to the inclusion of Bhuvneshwar, but once Agarkar was gone, it wasn’t very difficult to convince Pragyan Ojha and the other colleagues about the value of the experienced seamer in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah.

With his experience, he can also guide the likes of Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav, both of whom are being looked at as potential contenders for the 2028 T20 World Cup in Australia.

Apart from his 21 Test matches and 121 ODIs, Bhuvneshwar has played 87 T20Is and taken 90 wickets.

The squad announced by the BCCI – first after the exit of former chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and with Pragyan Ojha as interim chair – also has Varun Chakravarthy making a comeback after an injury had ruled him out of the Asian Games.