Bhuvneshwar Kumar replacement: Who has replaced Bhuvneshwar for West Indies ODIs?

Bhuvneshwar Kumar replacement: The Indian pacer has been ruled out of the upcoming three-match series vs West Indies.

For Indian quick Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 2019 has been a horrid time as far as injury goes. The player has struggled with a slew of injuries ever since the World Cup and his plight has only further worsened with the player’s groin injury resurfacing to rule him out of the imminent three match ODI series against West Indies.

Returning to the Indian setup after missing out on the series against South Africa and Bangladesh with a side strain for the bygone T20 clashes against West Indies, the pacer complained of discomfort in the culminating encounter of the T20 series.

Subsequent checks conducted on the player confirmed that his injury plight had returned with a relapse of his side strain unfortunately curtailing his participation for the entire ODI series.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar replacement

In lieu of the latest development, the BCCI and Indian team management have announced that Shardul Thakur will be roped in to fill the void left by Bhuvneshwar. The fast bowler won the race ahead of Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed given his imperious outings at the Indian domestic circuit recently to join India’s squad for the series opener to be contested on December 15, Sunday.

The latest development meanwhile meant that Bhuvneshwar becomes the second player to miss out for India across the white ball contests against West Indies with opener Shikhar Dhawan earlier ruled out due to his knee injury while playing for Delhi. He was replaced by Mayank Agarwal for the T20 and ODI series ensuing that setback.

Bhuvneshwar’s recent injury meanwhile has once seen fingers being pointed at the National Cricket Academy. Ever since his injury in July, the NCA has not come up with on coherent explanation as to why Bhuvneshwar was ruled out for such a long time and the processes being embedded in place to ensure his speedy and articulate recovery. And with the bowler out once again, the NCA has been lambasted for improper handling of players and their failure to ensure that players are provided with the requisite treatment.

With Bumrah already nursing an injury at the moment, India’s bowling attack looks paper thin for the ODI series, an area which is set to be a cause of concern to the Indian team who’ll be looking to hand out the same thumping to the visitors as they did in the T20 series.