Wellington: As Team India makes a tour of New Zealand for five T20Is, all eyes will be on a returning Bhuvneshwar Kumar to complete two massive milestones that will help him establish his legacy as a modern-day great in world cricket.
After his first T20I match in four years was washed out during the fifth T20I match against West Indies at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the home of his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), fans await the return of 'Swing King' to the crease during the New Zealand T20Is.
Bhuvneshwar, if he gets a chance to play, could play his first international game for India since the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal against England at Adelaide. Since then, Bhuvneshwar has had a resurgance with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), with his 45 wickets in 31 matches at an average of 22.55 and an economy rate of 8.52 helping the franchise to back-to-back titles in 2025 and 2026.
The 'Swing King' has 90 scalps for India at an average of 23.10 in 87 T20Is and has taken two five-fors and three four-fers in the format. With 10 more wickets, Bhuvneshwar could become the fifth Indian after Arshdeep Singh (145), Jasprit Bumrah (126), Hardik Pandya (114) and Axar Patel (113) to make it a century of T20I wickets.
With 294 wickets across all formats, Bhuvneshwar, at 36 years of age, has got a chance to complete 300 international wickets, the 14th overall bowler from India to reach the milestone and the ninth pacer to do so.
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.