India captain Shreyas Iyer is confident that veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s return will strengthen the team’s bowling attack, which lacked experience during the recent five-match T20I series against the West Indies at home.
The experienced seamer is expected to feature in the playing XI for the series opener, with the seam-friendly conditions at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval potentially working in his favour. Speaking at the pre-series press conference, Iyer backed Bhuvneshwar to use his experience to address India’s bowling concerns and provide greater stability to the attack.
“Bhuvi brings a lot of experience to the side. We were lacking that a bit, especially after the IPL. We had a lot of new bowlers. But if you see his T20 career graph over the last 4 years, he has won the IPL twice, and has a good idea about how to dominate this format,” Shreyas Iyer said during the pre-series press conference.
Further, Shreyas Iyer acknowledged that the team management faces a selection dilemma across the playing XI, with players on the bench also putting forward strong performances. However, he described it as a “sweet” headache, adding that it is the kind of challenge every team would want to have.
“So many backups, right? In a way, that is good, and it motivates the current team members to perform consistently for the team. Most importantly, we have to win the match, that is the eventual goal. I want to say that it is a sweet headache, but such a headache is important for every team,” he added.
India T20I Squad vs NZ: 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
