The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced the squad for the upcoming World Test Championship final and the following the five-match Test series against England. One stark exclusion from the side was senior fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
He last donned the Test jersey when India toured South Africa way back in 2018. From there on, injuries and the emergence of other speedsters from all over the country have forced Bhuvneshwar to warm the benches. Although he has found his spot back in the ODIs and T20Is, but it has been hard in red-ball cricket.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar left out of the squad
The national selection committee named a star-studded line-up for the upcoming tour of the UK. Even as they named Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, and Arzan Nagwaswalla as the newcomers, though as standby, Bhuvneshwar Kumar remains to be ignored.
While the reason for not including Bhuvneshwar is still not known, his injury woes can be a deciding factor. The senior pacer recently missed a few matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2021 before BCCI halted the tournament midway due to COVID19 cases among the players and support staffs.
Since making his debut way back in 2013, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has played only 21 Test matches picking up 63 wickets with as many as four five-wicket hauls. His last game was against the Proteas in January 2018 at the iconic Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. It was the same series when Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut.
Meanwhile, his omission left the fans shocked, who expressed their opinions on the microblogging site Twitter. As far as India’s squad is concerned, Prithvi Shaw also missed out after being left out from the tour of Australia.
Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:
Pretty surprised there's no room for Bhuvi in an enlarged squad for an England tour. Fitness issues yes, but then Ishant is not much different in recent times. I'd have added him, other than that very much expected. https://t.co/k3ypRFnGDR
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) May 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/CasualRoshan/status/1390660368763002881?s=20
https://twitter.com/Kim_kong_123/status/1390685105564250112?s=20
https://twitter.com/jeevan_reddie/status/1390661790464237569?s=20
Key pointers:
• Most shocking for me is no Bhuvneshwar Kumar in England
• Kuldeep Yadav dropped
• Hardik Pandya (as a pure batter) is difficult in Tests
• If Prithvi Shaw was dropped for one bad series, he should have been included now#WTCFinal #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/E1MwG028YP
— Yash Lahoti (@YvLahoti) May 7, 2021
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be sorely missed in England. #ICCWorldTestChampionship
— Debasis Sen (@debasissen) May 7, 2021
So Kuldeep Yadav gets axed from India’s Test squad. Hmmm… not too surprising given his ‘run’ over the past few months. Bigger surprise in Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s absence. Still not Test match fit or surplus for India’s Test requirements? #WTC #ENGvIND
— S Sudarshanan (@Sudarshanan7) May 7, 2021
Bhuvi subject to fitness should have found a place in the squad. Just feel he was needed in these conditions. Good squad otherwise. Feel bad for Kuldeep as well. In recent times he has missed out. #bcci #
— Mikkhail Vaswani (@MikkhailVaswani) May 7, 2021
Surprised that in England swinging condition our one of the best swing bowler (Bhuvi) is not even selected. pic.twitter.com/rRaUMAJJPw
— Achint (@Bosmang45) May 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/priti_0612/status/1390648898117521409?s=20