Will it be easy for Bhuvneshwar Kumar to make a comeback in India’s Test team?

When the BCCI announced the much-anticipated Indian squad for the World Test Championship and the five-match Test series against England, the list caught many by surprise with the name of Bhuvneshwar Kumar missing.

Bhuvneshwar has 218 wickets from 70 First-Class games with 12 five-wicket hauls. Even as his numbers paint a promising picture, a spate of injuries in his career has made his Test cricket journey difficult. Despite making his debut in 2013, the pacer has played merely 21 Tests to date, with 63 wickets under his name. He last wore the Test jersey when India toured South Africa way back in 2018.

Missing the England tour

Although Kumar recently made a comeback in India’s limited-overs team against England, which increased the hopes for his red-ball comeback as well, the selectors were happy to exclude him and go with other options. His exclusion becomes more notable given the way he has performed in England. On India’s 2014 tour, Kumar was awarded the Player of the Series for his exceptional all-round performance as he ended with 19 wickets at an average of 26.63, while scoring 247 runs at an average of 27.44, including three half-centuries.

Many injuries ever since have hampered not only his career in the longest format but in limited-overs too. When Kumar recently featured in the limited-overs series against England in March this year, he came back into the national team straight after December 2019. His inactivity has also been applicable to his First-Class career, which has been billed as one of the biggest reasons behind selectors’ ignorance towards him.

Kumar was a part of the Indian squad in the 2018-19 season for the Australian tour, but he did not get a chance to play, whereas not being in India meant he missed featuring for his Ranji team. In 2019-20, he was again involved with the Indian team’s limited-overs team, therefore missing out on playing for Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive year.

Lack of red-ball cricket

There have been articles about me not wanting to play Test cricket. Just to clarify, I have always prepared myself for all three formats irrespective of the team selection and will continue to do the same.
Suggestion – please don’t write your assumptions based on “sources”!

— Bhuvneshwar Kumar (@BhuviOfficial) May 15, 2021

The arrival of the pandemic meant that Ranji 2020-21 was cancelled and therefore, he played no red-ball cricket in the entire year. While participations in SMAT 2020 and VHT 2021 led him to enter the team, the lack of red-ball cricket continues to be a concern.

Moreover, given how a bunch of pacers have risen the ranks in the recent past for the nation, which includes the likes of Shadul Thakur, T Natarajan, Mohammed Siraj, and the manner in which Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, and Jasprit Bumrah have performed in the format, the entry for Kumar in the Test setup does not look easy.

Although to go by his words, it does not seem that the 31-year-old has any plans of leaving the longest format of the game. Clearing the rumours of his Test retirement, Bhuvneshwar sent the following tweet from his official handle.