New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner has backed Bhuvneshwar Kumar to be a significant threat in the upcoming five-match T20I series beginning October 22 at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. Bhuvneshwar returns to the T20I side after a gap of nearly four years, bringing experience to India's pace attack alongside Varun Chakravarthy, who is returning from injury. Santner spoke ahead of the first match of the series, which will be played across four cities over 11 days.
India captain Shreyas Iyer leads the touring squad that includes Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and other key players. The series runs until November 1, with venues spanning different conditions across New Zealand.
"I think Bhuvi will love these conditions in New Zealand. If there's anything in the wicket, he'll find something out of it. [Even] on some flat ones in India, still manages to nip the ball and swing the ball. So with the new ball out here especially, he'll be a challenge. I mean in India it's pretty challenging as a bowler these days, like we've seen in the recent series [against West Indies], 250 getting chased down - who wants to be a bowler? - but he might like it out here a little better," said Santner as quoted by Cricinfo.
Shreyas Iyer also emphasised Bhuvneshwar's value to the Indian team. The India captain noted that Bhuvneshwar brings significant experience to the pace department, an area where India felt the need for reinforcement after the IPL. Iyer pointed to Bhuvneshwar's recent success in the tournament, demonstrating his mastery of the T20 format.
"Bhuvi, like you said, brings a lot of experience in the team. That was something we lacked, especially after the IPL we had a lot of new bowlers. If you see Bhuvi's career graph in the last two years, he's won the IPL also so he knows very well how to dominate this format," said Iyer.
New Zealand are equally aware of India's batting strength. The last meeting between these sides was the T20 World Cup final in March, when blistering half-centuries from Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan powered India to a total of 255, and eventually a 96-run win. Apart from these three, India also have the precocious brilliance of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to call on.
"Obviously he [Sooryavanshi] didn't play [in India's last series against West Indies], but I've seen first-hand how good he is [in] the IPL. The power at the top that India have, Sanju and Abhishek have done really well, so I think it's one of those things where we know how good he is, and then the guys who are playing are also doing very well," said Santner.
"I think he has a huge part to play for India, whether it's this series or not, but in the future. If he does get a crack this series, we've seen what he can do, and guys have found it quite hard to stop him. I know England, in the series away, went quite short and hard at a lot of the Indian batters, but I think we've seen in the IPL how aggressive he can be, so we've got some plans for him if he happens to play," he added.
