Harsha Bhogle back to the English commentary team for India-Australia series

What's the story?

Cricket analyst and commentator Harsha Bhogle has returned to Board for Control of Cricket's English commentary team for Australia's tour of India.

India play the first game of the ODI series against Steve Smith's men today (September 17) at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.

Bhogle is a part of the commentary panel for the same and was among the set of analysts who covered the first ten overs of the game.

Very excited at joining the commentary team for #INDvsAUS. Looking forward to a really good series.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 14, 2017

In case you didn't know..

Bhogle last commentated for an India series when Virat Kohli and Co. travelled to West Indies after the Champions Trophy earlier this year.

However, unlike the India-Australia series, the Caribbean tour was not covered by the Star network.

This is the first time Bhogle will commentate for the Star network after his contract was terminated before IPL 2016.

The details

India will play 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is against Australia over the next couple of months. Bhogle will take part in the commentary of all eight encounters.

Sanjay Manjrekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Bret Lee and Michael Clarke will also be part of the commentary team for the same.

Welcome back Harsha.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) September 17, 2017

Bhogle was unceremoniously dropped from the commentary team before the Indian Premier League in 2016. He was also snubbed for the international tours that followed the tournament.

The celebrated commentator made a comeback to the panel in April this year, when a new crop of people replaced the then-existing BCCI officials after the CoA was established.

What's next?

India will host New Zealand for a limited-overs tour soon after the Australia series. Sri Lanka will then travel to the subcontinent for a full-fledged tour that will consist of all three formats of the game.

Bhogle will most likely be included in the commentary panel for both these events, provided everything goes right in the Australia series.

Author's take

Bhogle is an incomparable and knowledgeable cricket analyst whose speaking style has been loved by cricket enthusiasts across the world.

His exclusion came as a surprise to everyone in and around world cricket and it is heartening to see the man come back to where he belongs.

Bhogle's unbiased opinion is the unique selling point of his analysis, and the regular cricket fan would hope that he continues to stick with the same.