• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Bhuvneshwar Kumar Forced To Ranji Trophy After Indias Shambolic Centurion Loss

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Forced To Ranji Trophy After India's Shambolic Centurion Loss

image-lqq2e8tkBhuvneshwar played his last FC game 6 years ag [PC: X]

Indian fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar is all set to return to first-class cricket after six long years. The Meerut-born cricketer, who played his last red-ball game back in 2018 against South Africa in Johannesburg, will take the field for Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming Ranji Trophy season.

Bhuvneshwar had an impressive season for UP with the white ball, taking 11 wickets in 5 Vijay Hazare Trophy matches and a whopping 16 wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Now, someone like him, who can move the ball in the air both ways will be a terrific addition to an already threatening bowling attack on paper.

However, Bhuvneshwar will miss UP’s season opener against Kerala, which is scheduled to take place from January 5 due to some personal reasons and will be available for selection for the second game - as per Gopal Sharma, the chairman of the UPCA’s Selection Advisory Committee.

Nitish Rana is another name who will not be available for UP's first match but is expected to return in the second. Other renowned names like Kuldeep Yadav, Rinku Singh and Dhruv Jurel will be available for UP from the very first game. Meanwhile, the latter two are currently an unofficial Test against South Africa A in Benoni. 

It has been a long time since we have seen Bhuvneshwar in white. He was a regular in the Indian Test side till his flurry of injuries took over and limited him to play only in the shorter formats from 2019. Now, as he is very much out of the scheme from the Indian white-ball setup, Bhuvneshwar is looking to comeback to the longest format of the game.

The last time he played a Ranji Trophy match for UP was back in November 2016. He has taken 133 first-class wickets for the UP in his career at an average of 26.48 with 8 five-wicket hauls, including one in that famous Ranji Trophy final in 2009 where he dismissed the great Sachin Tendulkar for a duck.


UP Ranji Trophy squad for game vs Kerala:

Aryan Juyal, Madhav Kaushik, Smarth Singh, Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Sameer Rizvi, Karan Sharma, Akshdeep Nath, Priyam Garg, Prince Yadav, Yash Dayal, Ankit Rajput, Kartik Tyagi, Kuldeep Yadav and Saurabh Kumar.