IND vs NZ 1st T20I: How many wickets did Bhuvneshwar Kumar pick in India return game? Detailing pacer's performance at Chirstchurch

IND vs NZ 1st T20I: How many wickets did Bhuvneshwar Kumar pick in India return game? Detailing pacer's performance at Chirstchurch originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar finished wicketless on his India return, with figures of 0 for 49.
• His second over cost 17 runs, as Tim Seifert took him for two fours and a six.
• New Zealand posted 225/4, their highest T20I total at home.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar went wicketless on his India return at Hagley Oval

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's first international outing in almost four years ended without a wicket, the 36-year-old finishing with 0 for 49 from his four overs as New Zealand piled up 225/4 in the opening T20I at Hagley Oval. It was an economy rate of 12.25, the second most expensive return of the innings behind Axar Patel's 1 for 51.

The beginning could hardly have been better. Handed the new ball by Shreyas Iyer after India chose to field, Bhuvneshwar beat Tim Seifert with a beauty that curved away on the first ball, then cut him in half with one that swerved back sharply, conceding just four runs from a probing opening over.

From there the innings got away from him, as it did from almost every India bowler on a surface that offered early movement and very little afterwards.

His last two overs went for 14 apiece, and he was hit on the right hand off his own bowling in the 16th over, requiring an extended check from the physio before he was cleared to continue.

The final ball of the innings summed up the evening. Bhuvneshwar put it full-on middle and off, and Glenn Phillips simply turned himself into a left-hander and whacked it over midwicket for four to bring up New Zealand's 225.

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Tim Seifert took 17 off Bhuvneshwar's second over to turn the innings

The damage came early, in the third over of the innings, and it was Seifert who inflicted most of it. Bhuvneshwar began the over by overstepping, and off the resulting free delivery, Seifert threw everything at a yorker outside off and sliced it past short third for four.

A dot followed, then singles to either batter, before Seifert went after him properly. A 131 kph half-tracker on off was hammered to deep midwicket's left for four, and the next ball, back of a length on off, was launched over mid on and may well have landed on the roof.

Seventeen runs came from the over, and New Zealand were suddenly 29 without loss, having been 12 for 0 just two overs earlier. Seifert fell for 24 in the following over to Mayank Yadav, but the tone had been set, and India never regained control of the innings.

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Bhuvneshwar needs time to shake off his rust

The numbers are not kind, and a return of 0 for 49 is a difficult way to mark a comeback that was four years in the making. Bhuvneshwar was also denied an earlier return when his first recall, for the fifth T20I against the West Indies in Bengaluru, was washed out without him bowling a ball.

Context matters here, though. Every India bowler was taken apart at Hagley Oval, with the five of them conceding between 40 and 51 runs each, and Bhuvneshwar at least looked threatening with the new ball before the surface flattened out.

His opening over, with movement both ways and Seifert beaten twice, was the most dangerous India bowled all innings. The two no-balls and two wides will concern him more than the runs.

Those are the margins a bowler of his experience is picked to control, and against a batting side that reached its highest T20I total on home soil. The extras simply added to the problem.

Four more matches remain in the series, and he will want conditions that reward swing rather than a flat deck and short square boundaries.