After starting decently on the second day in testing conditions, India lost the plot completely on the third morning. New Zealand bowlers, especially Kyle Jamieson, wrecked havoc to pick up his fifth five-wicket haul as India were skittled for 217 runs in their first innings. However, with favourable conditions on offer, the Indian pacers were also expected to reap rewards with the dukes ball.

But it wasn’t to be. The ball hardly swung for the likes of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah while Ishant Sharma managed to swing a bit only to be ineffective. They were a tad short in their lengths and the Kiwi openers looked comfortable during their 70-run partnership in the middle. It was Ravi Ashwin who provided the much-needed breakthrough while Devon Conway threw his wicket away at the fag end of the day.

When Tom Latham and Conway were batting, the Indian fans got restless with not many runs on the board. Many were surprised to see the ball not swinging at all and they started missing their ace swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is a master at making the ball talk through the air and off the pitch.

Bhuvi hasn’t played Test cricket since January 2018 and one of the main reasons for the same has been his constant injury concerns. For some reason or the other, Bhuvneshwar has been on the sidelines and with India’s fast bowling pool ready which was evident on Australia tour, it seems that he could be restricted to playing only limited-overs formats.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar not picked in squad for England tour
Interestingly, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is not even in the squad for the WTC Final and the England tour. The man himself had expressed of making a comeback in the Test format after returning from injury earlier this year for the England series at home. However, it seems as if India have started to look beyond him given his consistent injury concerns.

Though he is not in England, Bhuvi was trending on Twitter on Sunday evening as Ind.