Bhuvneshwar Kumar recalled to India squad for five-match T20I tour of New Zealand

Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to India's squad for the five-match T20I series in New Zealand on Tuesday, October 06, 2026, marking his first call-up in nearly four years. The BCCI named the side in its first selection announcement after the exit of former chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, with Pragyan Ojha serving as interim chair.

India will play five T20Is in New Zealand from October 22 to November 1, 2026. The first match is scheduled at Christchurch on October 22, followed by the second on October 22 at the same venue. The third T20I will be on October 27 at Wellington, with the fourth and fifth on October 30 and November 1 at Auckland and Hamilton respectively.

The squad includes Varun Chakravarthy making a comeback after an injury had ruled him out of the Asian Games. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's recall ends a near four-year absence from the national side. Both players feature among the selections announced by the BCCI for the tour.

The announced T20I squad included 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. The list names Shreyas Iyer as captain and Tilak Varma as vice-captain, and identifies Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan as wicketkeepers. These players were part of the selection released for the New Zealand tour.

Additional players named included 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 Sudarsan, Yash Rathod and Mukesh Kumar. The announcement was published at 09:19 pm IST on October 06, 2026 and accompanied a file photo of Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar credited to The Hindu.

India will also play a five-match ODI series and a two-Test series after the T20I matches in New Zealand, with those fixtures scheduled to follow the October 22–November 1 T20I programme.