Bhuvneshwar Kumar, KL Rahul to feature in next round of Ranji Trophy matches

Indian cricket team opener KL Rahul and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will feature in the next round of the Ranji Trophy games which are scheduled to begin from November 13.

The duo missed the major part of the previous series against New Zealand with injuries and are hoping to make a comeback into the playing XI through these matches.

While Bhuvneshwar Kumar himself confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he will be back playing for Uttar Pradesh versus Mumbai in Mysore, Rahul’s coach J Arun Kumar said he will turn up for Karnataka against Rajasthan in a Group B outing in Vizianagaram.

With the competition nearing its close the addition of these key players will surely boost their domestic sides.

Another Indian opener, Shikhar Dhawan in all probability will play the round which starts from November 21 where Delhi lock horns against Rajasthan in Wayanad.

Dhawan who has not been in the best of form in recent times made 1 and 17 in the only Test he featured in against New Zealand at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. During the game, he fractured his left thumb owing to two fierce deliveries from pacer Trent Boult. He was thereafter ruled out from the next Test match and the One-Day International series which followed it.

Both Bhuvneshwar and Rahul have been out from any forms of the game for the last four weeks or so and will be therefore very eager to prove their fitness and form which can propel them back into the playing XI for the last three Test matches against England.

Rahul’s previous international outing was the first Test against the BlackCaps in Kanpur where he suffered a hamstring injury while running between the wickets. He missed the last two Test matches and then the ODI series too. But now, he has recovered and will take part in the game against Mumbai.

The right-hander had been in a rich vein of form prior to the hamstring problem. He scored a 158 in Jamaica and a half ton at St Lucia and then smashed his way to a 51-ball 110 in the first T20 against reigning world champions West Indies in Florida.

He was quite brilliant in Zimbabwe too, where he made his ODI debut and collected 196 runs from three games which also had a century.

Seamer Bhuvneshwar picked up his injury—a back strain during the second New Zealand Test at Kolkata. There, his five-wicket haul in the first innings had helped set up the 178-run win for India.