Bhuvneshwar Kumar's comeback to India's T20I team has been preponed, with the experienced pacer added to the squad for the fifth and final game of the ongoing series against the West Indies, which will be played on Saturday, October 16, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Bhuvneshwar has replaced star pacer Arshdeep Singh, who has faced an unfortunate blow to his left shoulder in the Hyderabad match.

Notably, Bhuvneshwar was supposed to make a comeback to the Indian dressing room for the tour of New Zealand, starting October 22, but a blow to his teammate has proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Meerut-born medium pacer. Chinnaswamy, where the bowler is all set to start a dramatic comeback journey, is also the home ground for RCB, the franchise that helped him earn back the India jersey.

"Bhuvneshwar Kumar was added to the squad after Arshdeep Singh sustained a blow to his bowling shoulder during the fourth T20I of the series against West Indies on Wednesday in Hyderabad. A decision on his participation for the final T20I will be taken prior to the game based on his recovery," the BCCI stated in an official release on Friday.

India’s updated T20I squad: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Sanju Samson [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Naman Dhir, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

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