The last time Bhuvneshwar Kumar played a T20I match for India was fifteen months ago in the home series against West Indies. So he is yet to play after the pandemic. However, it’s time for his return to action in the international scene as he will be featuring in the first T20I of the five-match series against England starting on Friday.
Skipper Virat Kohli is glad to have the experienced pacer back in the squad and he will be banking on Bhuvneshwar to deliver as their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah is unavailable for this series.
“Bhuvi is shaping up really nice. He is a smart operator like we have seen in the past. He has clear understanding what he wants to do and is one of our most experienced T20 bowlers. He is the guy you can bank on, so glad to have him back,” Kohli said in the pre-match virtual press conference ahead of the first T20I against England on Friday.
Bhuvneshwar has had his struggles with injury of late. He returned to action during IPL 2020 but another hamstring injury had forced him out of the tournament once again
He returned from rehabilitation after that and proved his fitness with excellent performances for Uttar Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. He will spearhead India’s bowling attack in this series which consists of the likes of Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and T Natarajan.
Kohli also spoke about the new additions to the squad and said that they have been picked mainly because of the X-factor they bring to the table.
“We have have played with a certain kind of pattern in the past. We did not have a big tournament to work towards in the past. If you look the squad, the additions we have made we have have tried to address a few things we needed in specific,” Kohli said.
“Guys who can be ‘x factors’ with the bat and do things which are the need of the hour in T20 cricket. These guys have done so on a regular basis in the IPL so we have tried to cover all those basis. Now it will be interesting to see how they go about in these five games,” he added.
