Former Indian batter Suresh Raina has showered praise on the veteran Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who received his national call-up for the forthcoming T20 tour of New Zealand, which will be played later this month.
Speaking at the jersey launch of the Indian Softball Cricket League, Raina acknowledged Bhuvneshwar’s hard work and also supported his fellow pacer Mohammed Shami to make a comeback to the national set-up.
While Bhuvneshwar last played for India in a T20I in November 2022, Shami’s last international game came in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Raina sounded confident and predicted Shami would make a comeback quite soon.
“Making it to the Indian team at the age of 36 shows character. He has been a very disciplined bowler and a very process-driven guy who has worked really hard on his body. I hope when they go to New Zealand, he will do very well; my best wishes are with him. Absolutely, I think he (Mohammed Shami) has done well and played good domestic cricket too. Now it’s Bhuvi’s turn, aur Shami bhi aa rahe hai piche piche, tension mat lijiye (Shami is also right behind him, so don’t worry). I hope the selectors give him an opportunity; he is doing really well,” Raina said on the jersey launch of the Indian Softball Cricket League.
Additionally, Raina also shared his views on heavy competition for the top-order slots in the Indian T20I side. Interestingly, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hasn’t received consistent backing in the XI with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma already present.
“Sanju has scored runs now, we lost the game, but cricket has become so innovative now. Even Abhishek is batting well, Shubman Gill is in a different form altogether. Rohit and Virat are also playing well in ODIs, so I think we are lucky that we have a lot of coaches now, and we have a lot of players who play fearless cricket. They are playing fantastically well while handling the pressure,” Raina noted.
