Bhuvneshwar Kumar has returned to India’s T20I squad with BCCI’s senior selection committee naming the 36-year-old fast bowler for the five-match series on the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
Incidentally, Bhuvneshwar’s last India appearance also came in New Zealand in November 2022, right after the T20 World Cup campaign. He has now stormed back into the setup following a pair of very successful IPL campaigns for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. IPL 2026 was particularly fruitful for Bhuvneshwar as he picked 28 wickets at an outstanding economy of 7.95
India’s T20I squad: 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
The 16-man squad also sees a return for Varun Chakaravarthy. The 35-year-old mystery spinner has had an injury riddled 2026. He was most recently in action in a T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi, where he suffered a side strain which subsequently ruled him out of the one-off T20I against Japan as well as the subsequent Asian Games. He returns to the squad at the expense of Ravi Bishnoi.
The rest of the T20I squad is similar to the one currently in action against West Indies. Jasprit Bumrah has not been picked for the T20Is presumably with an eye on his workload, with a key two-Test series to come later in the tour.
India’s tour of New Zealand starts on October 22 with the first T20I at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval.
More follows…
