Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is back with a bang. His unequalled comeback to red-ball cricket has put him in the reckoning again as he completed a career-best 8/41 in 22 overs for former champions Uttar Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy game in Kanpur on Saturday, weeks ahead of India’s five-match home Test series against England.
The 33-year-old seamer, who last played a Test in 2018 against South Africa, took three wickets on Saturday to complete his haul in the first innings of Bengal on a green top at the Green Park ground. Besides his 231 wickets in white-ball cricket, including 141 in 121 ODIs, Bhuvi has 63 wickets in 21 Tests with 8/96 against Sri Lanka at Eden Garden being his best in a match.
Turning up for UP in a first-class match almost after seven years, Bhuvi continued to surprise Bengal batters with his swing even on Day Two of the four-day Elite Group ‘B’ encounter, after snapping up 5/25 in 13 overs on Day One.
He dismissed Sourav Paul (13), Shreyansh Ghosh (41), Sudip Kumar Gharami (0), Anustup Majumdar (12), Manoj Tiwary (3), Abishek Porel (12), Pradipta Pramanik (1) and Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal (20). Yash Dayal took the remaining two wickets as Bengal were dismissed for 188 in reply to UP’s first innings 60 all out.
On Saturday, Bhuvi began by removing Ghosh, who edged to ‘keeper Aryan Juyal, before trapping Pramanik leg before and uprooting the middle stump of Jaiswal with a perfect inswinger.
“It’s a great performance by a bowler like Bhuvi, who showed why he is still so consistent in all forms of the game. He deserves praise by everyone, including the national selectors, who should have watched him bowl in the match here,” said UP coach and former India spinner Sunil Joshi on Saturday.
“Bhuvi has been a great performer as well as a big inspiration to pace bowlers in India and I hope that he will soon get his due once again.”
Bhuvneshwar last played for the national team in November 2022. His stellar performance in the comeback match with the red ball must be a big confidence booster to the ageing bowler, who still hopes to don the India colours again.
Uttar Pradesh were 46/0 in 18 overs in the second innings when the umpires called it a day due to bad light. Samarth Singh (21 — 50b, 3×4) and Aryan Juyal (20 — 58b, 2×4) were at the crease. Uttar Pradesh still trail Bengal by 82 runs.