Bhuvneshwar Kumar: After a long wait, Bhuvneshwar Kumar made a place in the Indian T20 team again. The BCCI senior selectors announced the 16-member squad for the five-match T20 series in New Zealand (India vs New Zealand). The 36-year-old pacer has been returned to the national team. After November 2022, Bhuvneshwar got a chance to play in India’s jersey again.
IPL Outstanding Performance Award
Bhuvneshwar last played T20 for India in New Zealand. He then returned to the national team after spending two consecutive successful IPL seasons with Royal Challengers Bangalore. Bhuvneshwar was especially in the IPL of 2026. Besides taking 28 wickets, his economy rate was just 7.95.
Varun also returned with Bhuvneshwar
Varun Chakraborty has also returned to the team for the T20 series against New Zealand. The 35-year-old enigmatic spinner has been sidelined for quite some time in 2026 due to injury. He was also ruled out of the only T20I against Japan and the subsequent Asian Games after suffering a side strain in the T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi. Now Varun has returned to the team in place of Ravi Bishnoi.
Bumrah was not included in the T20 squad
The rest of the T20 squad for the tour of New Zealand is mostly the same as the squad for the current series against the West Indies. However, Jasprit Bumrah was not kept in the team for this series. There is an important two-match Test series ahead of the tour of New Zealand. As a result, it is believed that this decision has been taken keeping in mind his workload.
T20 series starts from 22 October
India’s tour of New Zealand will begin on October 22. The first T20 will be played at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. India’s 16-man squad includes Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Akshar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakraborty and Kuldeep Yadav.
Two pacers from Bengal are also in India ‘A’ team
Meanwhile, the selectors have also announced a strong India ‘A’ squad for the three ODIs against New Zealand ‘A’. Two Bengal pacers Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar got a place there. Akash took six wickets in the just-concluded Irani Cup, while Mukesh was instrumental in taking eight wickets for Rest of India in the team’s 167-run victory. India ‘A’ team has several Test cricketers including Yasswi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutta Padikkal, Sai Sudarshan, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar. India ‘A’ matches will be on 27th October, 3rd November and 10th November. Then the India-New Zealand first Test will begin on November 19 in Wellington.