Former Indian opening batter and commentator Aakash Chopra has shared his views on the veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s national return for the forthcoming New Zealand T20I tour, commencing on October 22 in Christchurch.
Interestingly, Bhuvneshwar’s return and Ajit Agarkar’s exit as chief selector coincided. Speaking on the same, Aakash Chopra, on his YouTube channel, questioned whether this was part of the plan to eventually bring the veteran into the ODI set-up for the mega event next year.
“Ajit Agarkar was not a part of this selection, and this is the first time that he was not part of any selection and Bhuvi has made it back. Is this a precursor? Will they start with T20Is and try him in ODIs and prepare him for 2027? Are we actually moving in that direction? I think that is the biggest question. But we had been saying this for a long time: that Bhuvi deserves it in T20Is. You need to reward consistency and performance, and finally the reward has come,” Chopra said.
Bhuvneshwar last played for India in a T20I in November 2022. Interestingly, his last T20I was also in New Zealand. Speaking on the same, the former opener reckoned that it was a full-circle moment for the star pacer, who has played 87 T20Is, picking up 90 wickets.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar is back. Life has come a full circle because he last played on the New Zealand tour in 2022 and now he is back in the T20I squad after four years. Many people were waiting for this as he won back-to-back IPL titles and bowled consistently well for RCB but he was always getting ignored. But things have changed now. He has been added as the 16th member,” he added.
India T20I Squad vs NZ: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson [WK], Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav
