DURING the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season, R Ashwin had wanted the Indian selectors to give Bhuvneshwar Kumar a spot in the T20I set-up. When Kumar was asked about those comments a few days later, the pacer, whose last appearance for the national team had come in November 2022, had his tongue firmly in cheek. "Make Ash the selector," he had suggested then.
Ashwin is nowhere close to being the selector but Kumar is back in the T20I squad for the upcoming five-match series in New Zealand. The veteran pacer was part of the 16-man squad named by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday. The other frontline pacers in the set-up are Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav and Arshdeep Singh. With the likes of Jasprit Bumrah resting for the Test series, the pace-bowling unit may be short on experience on paper but Kumar's inclusion is noteworthy.
At another level, it's also completely justified even if at 36, he may not be getting younger. Over the last few IPL season, Kumar has been one of the best pacers going around; it's one reason why his side, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, did a two-peat. In 2026, for example, he was second-best for wickets (28), third-best for averages for anybody with over 25 overs (17.89), second-best economy rate for anybody with over 25 overs (7.95) and fourth-best strike rate for anybody with over 25 overs (13.50).
Like some of the other premium pacers in the game currently, he has refused to stand still. He has kept working on his craft and it has showed over the last few years. He has developed his knuckle ball and he's now the kind of pacer who can use bowl all four of his overs up front if the need arises. He's somebody who uses the available swing on offer apart from bowling the yorker.
During the interaction with select journalists, he also gave a rare insight into what made him click. "Hard-length bowling is back," he had explained. "But it's not for everyone and not on every wicket. It depends on conditions, dimensions and the batter. If there's help in the wicket, you bowl hard lengths. But if there's no help and the younger generation is batting, they don't care who is bowling or what the wicket is doing." That was basically him saying more than knowing what was working, he also knew what wasn't working or won't work.
When he was asked about lingering India ambitions, post the Ashwin comment, he had said he was at peace. "Acceptance is difficult, but once you learn to make peace with it, you think differently. The day I was dropped from the Indian team, I was at peace. I had been there for a decade, seen everything. That is why it was easier to able to detach."
In a few weeks from now, he will be making a journey he hasn't taken in almost 47 months.
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
India A squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Smaran, Rishabh Pant [WK]*, Dhruv Jurel [C] [WK], Washington Sundar, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Choudhary, Sai Sudharsan, Yash Rathod, Mukesh Kumar.
* subject to fitness
T20I series: 1st and 2nd in Christchurch (Oct 22 and 24), 3rd in Wellington (Oct 27), 4th in Auckland (Oct 30th), 5th in Hamilton (Nov 1st)
India A multi-day matches: 1st in Lincoln (October 24 to 27), 2nd in Christchurch (Oct 31 to November 3), 3rd in Lincoln (Nov 7 to 10).